Velociraptor

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Saurischia > Theropoda > Neotheropoda > Tetanurae > Avetheropoda > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Pennaraptora > Paraves > Dromaeosauridae > Eudromaeosauria > Velociraptorinae

Overview: Were it not for the Jurassic Park franchise, Velociraptor would probably be a rather obscure dinosaur. American fossil hunters first recovered its remains in the early 1920’s, in what is now the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. They were sent to the American Museum of Natural History for study, where the renowned Henry F. Osborn used them as the basis for a new genus and species – Velociraptor mongoliensis. Its generic name is Latin for “swift thief” or “swift plunderer”, referring to it having been a relatively agile dinosaur, which seemed obvious to Osborn, even in 1924. The type species was named for Mongolia, its nation of origin. At that time, Osborn only had a crushed skull, a claw, and a few toe bones to work with, but far more complete specimens would be recovered in the decades to come. Many of these would be found by Soviet and Polish fossil hunters. Mongolia was a communist state for most of the twentieth century, so western paleontologists were banned from entering the country and prospecting among its many fossil-riche sites. Velociraptor itself has mainly been found in the Djadochta and Bayan Mandahu Formations, and possibly in the Nemegt.

Unlike its famous film counterpart, the actual Velociraptor stood nowhere near as tall as a man. It was generally about as tall as or slightly more so than a person’s knee, with a length of two meters – fairly average for a member of its family. The jaws were long and narrow, the snout having a slight upward curve. Along the jaws were many finely serrated, blade-like teeth. Its hands appear to have been well adapted for grasping, aided by three hooked claws. Velociraptor, like other “raptor” dinosaurs in the dromaeosaurid family, possessed enlarged talons on the second toe of each foot, used to hook into and grip its prey as it attacked with its jaws. Much of its food probably consisted of smaller animals, but direct fossil evidence shows us it went after animals its own size or even larger. One specimen, the famous “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen, preserved this animal in a death struggle with an adult Protoceratops. The two appear to have been rapidly buried by a sudden sandstorm or a collapsing dune. Studies of the Djadochta in particular reveal that the region was quite similar to the modern Gobi at that time, being very arid with mostly seasonal streams or lakes.

Velociraptor, as a member of the family Dromaeosauridae, belonged to the clade Maniraptora, so it was fairly closely related to modern birds. It’s specifically classified within a subfamily known as the Velociraptorinae, for which it’s the namesake. Velociraptorines were generally quite similar to Velociraptor itself, tending to be average-sized and mostly slender-built dromaeosaurids, usually possessing narrow snouts. As it was a maniraptoran dinosaur, we’d generally expect Velociraptor to have been feathered in life. Strong fossil evidence shows us this was almost certainly true. Many of its close relatives have been found with preserved feather impressions. Even more notable, one specimen of Velociraptor itself has been found with traces of quill knobs on its lower arm bones, taking the form of tiny, evenly-spaced bumps along the ulna – anchor points for veined feathers. Unable to fly with these feathers, they could’ve been used for insulation, to give it a boost when going up steep terrain, or to help maintain its balance when on top of its prey. As for its behavior in life, there’s limited evidence at best it was a pack hunter, never being found alongside others of its species.