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13 Valiant Facts about Velociraptors
If you ask your average 5 year old what their favorite dinosaurs are, they will often make a fuss about how great Velociraptors are.
Damn, thanks to Jurassic Park movies, they are probably even your favorite 10-year-old average dinosaur!
If you are coming here now to try to find out what Velociraptor is and why they are great, here's the general scoop.
The Velociraptors were small to medium sized dinosaurs that lived 75 to 71 million years ago, giving or receiving.
Adult Velociraptors are about 6.8 feet (2.07 m) long and 1.6 feet (0.5 m) tall and weigh very little, about 15 kg.
They have 26 razor sharp serrated teeth, standing on two legs, with two small arms with three claws on each.
Most importantly, though, they are most likely very fast, and can outrun most prey or even predators!
Now that you have a basic idea of what Velociraptor is, let's take a look at some of the more interesting facts that make these dinosaurs the most interesting!
What you've seen in the Jurassic Park movies is false.
With facts like these, it is best to tear off the tape first and fix it.
Well, they're not really based on Velociraptors.
So why use an older dinosaur than Velociraptors and call them incorrectly?
Well, Deinonychus is a much bigger and more intimidating-looking version of Velociraptor, not to mention their name is simply not as exciting.
Velociraptors was discovered only in 1924.
The fossils were later identified as a new species discovered in Mongolia's Gobi desert on August 11, 1923 by Peter Kaisen.
The fossil that Peter discovered was a crushed skull and a claw and was completely unknown to the world until that time.
The person responsible for naming the first Velociraptor fossils was actually the president of the American Museum of Natural History, a paleontologist named Henry Fairfield Osborn.
Velociraptors has a name that is surprisingly accurate.
When Henry Osborn named the Velociraptors for the first time in 1924, he had only a small amount of information regarding the animals.
From what he could see, they would be fast and nimble hunters.
So he named them Velociraptors, a combination of the Latin word "velox" meaning "quick", and "raptor", meaning thief.
There is a fossil of Velociraptor and Protoceratops captured during the war.
It is actually one of the most prominent fossils of any (or two) dinosaurs ever discovered.
Fossils found by a group of Poles and Mongols in 1971 clearly show that the dinosaurs were in the midst of a mortal struggle as they were caught up in what could only be guessed by a storm.
Their fossil remains still show that it was a fairly uniform match - although one of the velocity's arms is trapped in the Protoceratops' jaws, the velocity animal has its claws deep.
Surprisingly, Velociraptors were actually feathered dinosaurs.
Again, if you rely on what you know about velocity species off Jurassic Park, I apologize for ruining your dream.
The fact is that Velociraptors are not only as huge and terrifying as they were made, but covered in feathers!
With that said, scientists still have not been able to figure out the extent of their plumage, whether they are completely covered by feathers or if there are only a few bunches of feathers sticking out here and there.
Either way, they're definitely not the lizard-like beasts depicted in Jurassic Park!
Don't worry - Velociraptors can't fly!
Although Velociraptors are hairy, they do not actually have wings.
Maybe if they keep growing for several millennia this will become possible, but due to their physical makeup they simply cannot, no matter how hard they try!
They have fused sternum like modern birds, but their arms are simply too short to support their weight.
Again due to the size and shape of the arms, they can't even glide!
So, what are their feathers for?
Velociraptors may even have climbed trees!
There are some theories among paleontologists that the Velociraptors, or at least their close relatives, were climbing the tree.
Even though it's a controversial theory, all we have with dinosaurs is theory.
The theory is based on the strange, sword-like large claws that Velociraptors and the rest of the Dromaeosauridae have on their hind legs.
Of course, some other paleontologists disagree, believing that the claws are used to cut down prey, not to climb.
We may never know, but no matter what, their claws are pretty scary!
Velociraptors aren't much smarter than chickens.
Pop culture has turned these raptors into super-intelligent creatures, capable of complex thinking.
The fact is that dinosaur brains aren't all developed, with their mental processes reaching the level of a newborn cat if so.
If anything, I'd be more insulting than Velociraptors.
There are actually two different Velociraptors species.
While the first Velociraptor, V. mongoliensis, was discovered in 1924, the second was discovered much later in 2008. also in Mongolia.
This second species was named Velociraptor osmolskae after the Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska.
However, the known difference between the two is little.
We don't know how they sounded.
For those who once shivered in chairs watching any Jurassic Park movie, don't worry!
The reality is that we have no way to reproduce the sounds they would make using only fossils.
So, what are those sounds that scare us all?
Some sound samples from horses, geese, dolphins, and even the moan of turtles making love!
In fact, Velociraptors are more like terrestrial eagles.
As we've seen before, we now know that Velociraptors are feathered beasts, instead of the previous notion that they are covered in lizards-like scales.
Some scientists have come up with the idea that the modern animal that the Velociraptors most resemble is the eagle.
One main reason for this is due to the large claw on Velociraptor's hind leg, which looks very similar to the claw of an eagle.
It is thought that they even use their claws in the same way as eagles by hooking on prey and holding on while biting them with their rather formidable teeth.
Regardless, whether they look like terrestrial eagles or not, I definitely wouldn't want to meet an angry one!
Velociraptors are agile and skilled hunters.
Famous fossils of Velociraptor and Protoceratops captured in the midst of the war have led paleontologists to believe that for a long time, this dinosaur was the species that Velociraptors had been hunting for.
Although it was an interesting idea, people have found that this may not be the case.
Velociraptors are rather small beasts, with razor-sharp teeth and a great agility show.
This means they will be very skilled hunters, but due to their narrow jaws they are more likely to hunt much smaller animals.
Velociraptors can run much faster than humans.
What Jurassic Park did right was the incredible speed of the Velociraptors.
Scientists can model the approximate speeds of animals based on their general fitness and shin bone length.
In the case of the Velociraptors, they had fairly long shin bones, as well as a sturdy long tail that could help them steer at high speeds.
So how fast can they run?
Yes, we have it.
They are very agile and may have stolen eggs and young from other dinosaurs' nests.
The biggest surprise to most people is that they are hairy, but I think I'm fine with that!
How about you?
