Velociraptor:

We already wrote an article about Velociraptor, yes, but a raptor deserves as much attention as it can get. We’re still in the trend of going with famous dinosaurs that were misrepresented by Jurassic Park (yes it’s a good movie but fluffy T-rexes can look scary).

Velociraptor was one of the dromeosaurids, a family of fluffy killer dinosaurs that were closely related to birds. These were one of the most active and vicious predators, and while they were portrayed as intelligent as a human and extremely fast in Jurassic Park, this is unrealistic. Velociraptors were about as intelligent as a modern-day dog, and would have been about 25 mph.

The velociraptors belonged to one branch of the dromeosaur family, called the Velociraptorinae (very original). The dromeosaurs were split into three main branches: the small gliding microraptorines, the robust and bulky eudromeosaurines, and the lean, birdlike unenlagiines.

Velociraptor and its relatives belonged in the eudromeosaurines, in which they were separated into the velociraptorines and the dromeosaurines. The velociraptorines mostly lived in Central Asia, and were sleek and fast. The dromeosaurines mostly lived in the Americas, and were much more robust and bulky, such as the massive Utahraptor that could look a man in his eyes. But, you may ask, weren’t raptors all that big? No! Velociraptor was about as tall as a turkey, and Deinonychus, one of the larger dromeosaurines, was as big as a wolf.

Velociraptor would have been very aggressive, but it wouldn’t have eaten humans; it was just too small. The larger Utahraptor, though, would have readily munched down on us, making it the best approximate to the ‘raptors’ in Jurassic Park. Another raptor, found in Central Asia, was around the same size, and was called Achillobator. This was another close relative of Velociraptor as well.

Well, I hope you learned something new about this fearsome, but small predator! And something that you definitely, definitely should not forget is that all dromeosaurs had a nice fluffy coat of feathers!