Velociraptor: Terror of the Gobi

Velociraptor is a rather famous dinosaur, with many fossils discovered in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, including the famous sandstorm fight betweeen a Velociraptor and Protoceratops, a smaller relative of Triceratops. Velociraptor is also famous from Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park II, Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It was not a fairly good representation on the outside, being way too big and having no feathers. It would have some kind of warm covering if it was as fast and agile as shown on TV and movies. In real life, Velociraptor would be the size of a small turkey, about 4ft tall, 5ft long, and weighing about 35lb at average size. It would also have a warm coating of feathers, and that would indicate that northern Asia was not the barren, baking deserts and steppes we know today. Velociraptor hunted in small packs, and its main weapon was a sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of its foot. All dromaeosaurs and troodonts, or raptors as they are known, possess this deadly claw. But a thing most people do not know is that Velociraptor had a stiff tail, which could only be moved sideways. Velociraptor could also communicate with other members of its pack with its hands. But Velociraptor wasn’t the only predator in the Gobi. Lots of raptors lived in Mongolia at the time, not to count the tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus prowling about the lush plains of the late Cretaceous, a time when angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, grass, and cycads all lived together. As for herbivores, ceratopsians were available for breakfast in the Gobi.