Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Giants of the past

Velociraptor

Velociraptor mongoliensis

Twenty inches tall, not six feet

A feathered individual among the sand dunes of the Mongolian desert at the end of the Cretaceous.
A feathered individual among the sand dunes of the Mongolian desert at the end of the Cretaceous.
  • Status: Extinct
  • Fossils found in the desert of southern Mongolia, Djadochta Formation
  • Extinct

Numbers

Weight
33 lb33 to 44 lb
Length
6,5 ftaverage length inferred from fossil remains
Height
20 inmeasured at the hip, not at the head
Lifespan
83 million years agoLate Cretaceous, Campanian: fossils are dated between 83 and 70 million years ago
Teeth
28 teethtwenty-six to twenty-eight, curved and serrated on the back side
Hip height
20 inmuch less than the animal shown in movies
Sickle claw
null inon the second toe; the material does not state its length

Ten fun facts

  1. the sickle claw on the foot was mistaken for a hand claw by the team that found the first specimen.

  2. it walked touching the ground with only its third and fourth toes while holding its curved clawed second toe raised.

  3. its jaws held between twenty-six and twenty-eight curved teeth that were serrated only on the edge facing backward.

  4. its feathers did not fossilize, but their anchor points left small knob impressions directly on the lower arm bones.

  5. all known specimens come from a single geological formation in southern Mongolia known as the Djadochta Formation.

  6. the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil preserves an individual and a Protoceratops locked together in the exact position they died.

  7. sandstones without internal structures suggest that many animals were suddenly buried alive by massive collapsing sand dunes.

  8. no fossil has ever been found alongside others of the same species, leaving pack hunting entirely without evidence.

  9. the first specimen was described in 1924 by Henry Fairfield Osborn using a flattened yet complete fossil skull.

  10. it belongs to the Maniraptora group, which is the exact same clade that includes avian dinosaurs and modern birds.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

How tall was it at the hip?

Question 2 of 5

Where have all known specimens been found?

Question 3 of 5

What did it have on its second toe?

Question 4 of 5

Did it have feathers?

Question 5 of 5

Did it hunt in packs?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Measure twenty inches up from the floor with a tape measure to mark the wall. That was the real hip height of this animal, unlike in the movies.

Experiment 2

Stick six and a half feet of tape onto the floor and lie down next to it. That was the total length of an adult, including its tail.

Experiment 3

Count twenty-eight dried beans and line them up on a sheet of paper. That was the maximum number of teeth in its jaws.

Data from Wikidata (Q1420827).