Velociraptor

The velociraptor is a light, fast predator with sharp, sickle-shaped claws. It is one of the smartest dinosaurs due to its large brain size relative to its body.

Velociraptos are one of the most well-known and famous dinosaurs, being featured in Jurassic Park and other media.

There are many misconceptions around Velociraptors, which we will address further on…

Velociraptor Basic Information

The Velociraptor ran on two legs and had two claws that it used for attacking.

It was actually a feathered dinosaur, contrary to popular media depictions of entirely scaled reptiles with no feathers.

Name: Velociraptor
Meaning: swift plunderer/robber
Pronunciation: ve-LOSS-i-RAP-tor
Meaning: Rapid thief
Time-Period: Late Cretaceous period, 84-71 MYA
Group: Theropoda
Classification:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chodata
- Class: Reptilia
- Family: Dromaeosauridae
- Subfamily: Velociraptorinae
- Genus: Velociraptor
- Species: Velociraptor mongoliensis
Diet: Carnivore
Fossil Locations: Mongolia, China, 1924

Where Did Velociraptor Live?

Velociraptors lived in Central and East Asia, where the only fossils have been found. Specifically, these fossils were found in Mongolia and China.

Velociraptors largely lived in what is the modern-day Gobi Desert; the habitat was essentially the same sort of desert that it is today.

Velociraptor Physical Characteristics

With hollow bones and feathers, velociraptors share many similarities with modern birds, despite being flightless reptile predators.

Contrary to depictions in the media, they are quite small despite being 6 feet long.

Size (Length/Height): 3 feet (1 meter) long, not including the tail
Weight: 40 pounds (18.1 kg)
Appearance: Velociraptors were actually about the size of a turkey, but with long tail feathers and sharp claws. It couldn’t fly, but it did have short, feathered forelimbs and plumage.
Teeth: Velociraptors had many small, sharp, serrated teeth for tearing apart and shredding meat.
Eyesight: Velociraptors had good eyesight, with binocular vision for hunting. Additionally, their eyes were quite large for maximum light collection, indicating they were nocturnal or active during low-light times.
Smell: Much like their eyesight, velociraptors likely had a good sense of smell for tracking prey.
Hearing: Being a distant relative of birds, their inner ear has bird-like structures for high frequency, and a larger middle-ear cavity for low frequency sounds. They had great hearing for predation.

What Did Velociraptor Eat?

Velociraptor, being much smaller and less fierce than those depicted in cultural media, often ate smaller prey such as reptiles, amphibians, and other small, slow dinosaurs.

This dinosaur has an exclusively carnivorous diet. It is thought to be mostly a scavenger, eating from the bones and carcasses left from larger dinosaurs.

However, there has been proof of Velociraptors being a predator of the Protoceratops, which was like a small, plated pig. It is also known that they ate scraps of a flying azhdarchid pterosaur.

Additional Facts

Feathered Dinosaurs: Velociraptor actually has knobs on its forearms that are the same as the ones found in the wingbones of birds, where deaths connect. This is what proves that Velociraptors were feathered.
Misconception on Size: Modern depictions of velociraptors, such as in the Jurssic park movies, depict velociraptors as even bigger than humans. In reality, velociraptors weren’t much larger than turkeys. Although there were carnivores as large as and bigger than humans that would have been similar to those in Jurassic Park, velociraptors were not one of them.
Disembowling Claws: Velociraptors have curved. sickle-shaped claws that were speculated to be used as a disembowling tool. However, this idea has been disproved. Instead, research suggests that its claws were used as hooks to prevent escape.
Brooding Behavior: Velociraptors are thought to be more closely related to modern birds than the Oviraptor was. Which means it is likely that the Velociraptor displayed bird-like behavior, such as brooding over its eggs

Famous Velociraptor Skeletons

One of the most famous Velociraptor specimens is a part of the “Fighting Dinosaurs” fossil.

This contains a complete Velociraptor skeleton that was found locked in battle with a Protoceratops found in the Gobi Desert in 1971.

This fossil is one of the national treasures of Mongolia.

FAQ

In Jurassic Park, the Velociraptors are shown tapping their claws to help locate prey. However, there’s no scientific proof of this sort of behavior.

In fact, most intact third claws on their foot were kept off the ground when walking, and were very sharp, indicating it is unlikely that they tapped them on the ground and risked dulling them.

Yes, Velociraptors would have looked like a disturbing feathered bird of prey. Not only did they have feathers on their arms, but they would also have had feathers on their whole body and tail. There have been close relatives such as the Microraptor and the Zhenyuanlong, which were both found with preserved feathers

No, although they had feathered arms, they are flightless. Its arms wouldn’t have had the wingspan to fly or even glide. While it did have the same fused collar bone seen in birds that can fly, it lacked the asymmetrical feathers needed for flight.

Rather than flying, it is suspected that the feathers were used for attracting mates, similar to a peacock. It’s also possible that the feathers were used for warmth for its own body as well as for covering eggs and brooding.