Velociraptor: Facts About the 'Speedy Thief' (2024)

Velociraptorroamed the Earth about 85.8 million to 70.6 million years ago during the end of the Cretaceous Period.

In 1924, Henry Fairfield Osborn, then-president of the American Museum of Natural History, namedVelociraptor. He bestowed the name on this dinosaur, which is derived from the Latin words "velox" (swift) and "raptor" (robber or plunderer), as an apt description of its agility and carnivorous diet.

Earlier that year, Osborn had called the dinosaurOvoraptor djadochtariin an article in the popular press, but the creature wasn't formally described in the article and the name "Ovoraptor" wasn't mentioned in a scientific journal, makingVelociraptorthe accepted name.

There are twoVelociraptorspecies,V. mongoliensisandV. osmolskae, the second of which was only identified in 2008.

A member of the Dromaeosauridae family of small- to medium-sized birdlike dinosaurs,Velociraptorwas roughly the size of a small turkey and smaller than others in this family of dinosaurs, which includedDeinonychusandAchillobator. AdultVelociraptorsgrew up to 6.8 feet (2 meters) long, 1.6 feet (0.5 meter) tall at the hip and weighed up to 33 lbs. (15 kilograms).

LikeTyrannosaurus rex,Velociraptorhad a prominent role in the "Jurassic Park" movies, but scientists do not believe it resembled anything close to its Hollywood depiction in terms of size or appearance. In fact, the movies'Velociraptorwas actually modeled afterDeinonychus, and sported a similar size and snout.

While theVelociraptorwas featherless in the movies, paleontologists discovered quill knobs (places where the flight-related feathers of birds are anchored to the bone) on a well-preservedVelociraptorforearm from Mongolia in 2007, indicatingthe dinosaur had feathers.

Despite having feathers, however, the arms ofVelociraptorswere too short to allow them to fly or even glide. The find suggests that the dinosaurs' dromaeosaurid ancestors could fly at one point, but lost that ability, according to the study published in the journalScience.

Velociraptor retained its feathers, and possibly used them to attract mates, regulate body temperature, protect eggs from the environment or generate thrust and speed while running up inclines.

Velociraptorhad a relatively large skull , which was about 9.1 inches (23 centimeters) long, concave on the upper surface and convex on the lower surface, according to a 1999 description of aVelociraptorskull, published in the journalActa Palaeontologica Polonica.Additionally, its snout was long, narrow and shallow, and made up about 60 percent of the dinosaur's entire skull length.

Velociraptorhad 13 to 15 teeth in its upper jaw and 14 to 15 teeth in its lower jaw. These teeth were widely spaced and serrated, though more strongly on the back edge than the front.

Velociraptor's tailof hard, fused bones was inflexible, but likely kept it balanced as it ran, hunted and jumped.

Velociraptor, like other dromaeosaurids, had two large hand-like appendages with three curved claws. They also had asickle-shaped talonon the second toe of each foot. They normally kept these talons off the ground like folded switchblades, and used them as hooks to keep their prey from escaping (similar to modern birds of prey), according to a study published in 2011 in the journalPLOS ONE.

What did Velociraptor eat?

Velociraptorwas a carnivore that hunted and scavenged for food. "It spent the vast majority of the time eating small things," which likely included reptiles, amphibians, insects, small dinosaurs and mammals, said David Hone, a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London.

The fast predator also appears to have had a complicated relationship withProtoceratops, a sheep-sized herbivore and ancestor toTriceratops. In 1971, a Polish-Mongolian team discovered the famous "Fighting Dinosaurs" specimen — fossils of aVelociraptorandProtoceratopslocked in a death grip, in which theVelociraptorembedded one of its foot claws into the neck of theProtoceratopswhile theProtoceratopsbit down on (and probably broke) one of theVelociraptor's arms.

Preserved in sand deposits after being buried from a collapsing sand dune or sudden sandstorm, the pair proved thatVelociraptorshunted for food, but an attack on such a large animal probably wasn't common. "Few predators ever take on prey bigger than 50 percent of their body mass," Hone told Live Science, adding that theVelociraptorcould have been starving or simply "young and dumb."

But that's not to sayVelociraptordidn't frequently eatProtoceratopscarcasses. In 2008, researchers unearthedProtoceratopsfossils marred with marks and groovesmatching raptor teeth, as well as two teeth that belonged either toVelociraptoror another dromaeosaurid.

After analyzing the remains, Hone and his colleagues determined that the raptor didn't kill the plant-eater. Instead, it fed on theProtoceratops, which likely had little meat left on it (hence the bite marks on the herbivore's jaws and raptor's knocked-out teeth), according to the study, published 2010 in the journalPalaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

In 2012, Hone and his colleagues also discovered thatVelociraptorssometimes ate pterosaurs, when the team found alarge pterosaur bone in the guts of aVelociraptor. The pterosaur had a wingspan of about 6.5 feet (2 m) and may have been a formable foe even if it were sick and injured, suggesting theVelociraptormost likely scavenged the pterosaur bone, Hone said.

Fossil discoveries

The firstVelociraptorfossil was discovered by Peter Kaisen on the first American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Outer Mongolian Gobi Desert in August 1923. The fossil consisted of a skull that was crushed but complete and a toe claw.

Velociraptorfossils have been found in the Gobi Desert, which covers southern Mongolia and parts of northern China.Velociraptor mongoliensishave only been discovered in the Djadochta (Djadokhta) Formation, which is in the Mongolian province of Ömnögovi.

Velociraptor osmolskaewas discovered at the Bayan Mandahu Formation in Inner Mongolia, China. The species was described based on a partial adult skull. [Image Gallery: Dinosaur Fossils]

Like the "Fighting Dinosaurs," otherVelociraptorfossils were found in arid sand dune environments.

Related pages

• A Brief History of Dinosaurs

More dinosaurs

• Allosaurus: Facts About the 'Different Lizard'
• Ankylosaurus: Facts About the Armored Dinosaur
• Apatosaurus: Facts About the 'Deceptive Lizard'
• Archaeopteryx: Facts about the Transitional Fossil
• Brachiosaurus: Facts About the Giraffe-like Dinosaur
• Diplodocus: Facts About the Longest Dinosaur
• Giganotosaurus: Facts about the 'Giant Southern Lizard'
• Spinosaurus: The Largest Carnivorous Dinosaur
• Triceratops: Facts about the Three-horned Dinosaur
• Tyrannosaurus Rex: Facts about T. Rex, King of the Dinosaurs

Time periods

Precambrian: Facts About the Beginning of Time

Mesozoic Era: Age of the Dinosaurs

• Jurassic Period Facts

• Pleistocene Epoch: Facts About the Last Ice Age
• Holocene Epoch: The Age of Man

Additional resources

• University of California Museum of Paleontology: The Dromaeosauridae
• Worldwide Museum of Natural History: A Raptor Named Bambi