47 Fun Facts About Velociraptor

What does the name Velociraptor mean?

Swift thief, from the Latin velox, swift, and raptor, robber. Its namer chose it in 1924 for what he called an alert, swift-moving carnivorous dinosaur.

Despite its Jurassic Park fame, Velociraptor lived in which geological period?

Cretaceous. Velociraptor lived about 75 million years ago, some 70 million years after the Jurassic ended, and the film's biggest star, T. rex, came later still.

Roughly how big was a real Velociraptor?

About the size of a turkey: about two metres at most from nose to tail tip and only half a metre tall at the hip. The man-sized hunters of the films were scaled up from a much bigger relative.

Which fossil formation in Mongolia has produced most Velociraptor specimens?

Djadochta. American Museum of Natural History expeditions first explored it in the 1920s and pulled Velociraptor and several other new dinosaurs out of it within a few field seasons.

Velociraptor belongs to which family of feathered, sickle-clawed dinosaurs?

Dromaeosauridae. Like birds, its members had a wrist joint that let the hands swivel sideways, the same motion that powers a bird's flight stroke.

What distinguishes Velociraptor's skull from those of its close relatives?

Long and low with an upturned snout. The film raptors got it wrong: they were given the size, proportions and snout shape of a bigger relative instead.

Which American explorer led the 1920s Gobi expeditions that found the first Velociraptor?

Roy Chapman Andrews led the American Museum of Natural History's Gobi expeditions of the 1920s. They set out to prove that Asia was the cradle of humankind and instead made their name with dinosaurs.

The first Velociraptor skull was found in 1923 at which famous fossil site?

The Flaming Cliffs. The American fossil hunters who dug there in the 1920s coined the name because the red sandstone seems to glow at sunset.

The famous 'Fighting Dinosaurs' fossil preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with which dinosaur?

Protoceratops. The plant-eater went down fighting: its beak is clamped on the raptor's right arm, which it had probably broken.

The Fighting Dinosaurs were discovered in 1971 by a team from which two countries?

Poland and Mongolia. American teams had dug in the Gobi in the 1920s but did not return until 1990, so for decades Polish and Soviet crews did the digging with Mongolian colleagues.

Which cause of death for the Fighting Dinosaurs replaced the original drowning idea?

Buried by a collapsing dune or sandstorm. The pair lie in ancient dune sands, still locked in their fighting poses, so the burial must have been almost instant.

The 2007 proof that Velociraptor had feathers came from a row of bumps on which part of its skeleton?

Its forearm. The bumps on the ulna are quill knobs, where the long arm feathers of living birds are anchored, so a suspicion based on its feathered relatives became proof.

A headless Velociraptor-like skeleton nicknamed 'Ichabodcraniosaurus' references a character by which author?

Washington Irving created Ichabod Crane, the schoolmaster chased by a headless horseman. Long filed as a Velociraptor, the skeleton became a new animal in 2021, named Shri devi after a Buddhist deity.

Which relative of Velociraptor had long feathers on its legs as well as its arms, giving it four wings?

Microraptor, a tiny dinosaur under a metre long. Pigment cells preserved in one fossil suggest that its plumage was a glossy black.

Velociraptor's enlarged sickle claw was on which toe of each foot?

The second toe. It was held up off the ground, so the animal walked on just two toes, and fossil trackways left by its relatives show no mark from the big claw.

Velociraptor fossils show that it shared which feature of the modern bird skeleton?

A wishbone, the fused collarbones of modern birds. Dinosaurs were long thought to lack them, which for decades was taken as strong evidence that birds could not be their descendants.

In Jurassic Park, the caged raptors systematically test which part of their pen for weaknesses?

The electric fences. 'They remember,' warns the park's warden, who says the raptors never attacked the same place twice and went for the wires whenever the feeders came.

The presence of quill knobs led researchers to suggest that Velociraptor's ancestors could do what?

Fly. Birds that have lost the power of flight typically lack quill knobs, so the team read them as a leftover from winged ancestors; Velociraptor itself was too heavy and short-armed to take off.

What do palaeontologists think made up most of Velociraptor's diet?

Small reptiles and mammals. Its narrow jaws and light build suit quick, snapping bites at nimble prey, and few predators tackle animals more than half their own weight.

Velociraptor belongs to which major group of dinosaurs, alongside Allosaurus and Spinosaurus?

Theropods. The name means 'beast foot', as in a mammal's, yet theropod feet actually look far more like those of birds.

A 2011 model of how Velociraptor killed compares its hunting style to which modern animals?

Eagles and hawks. In this model the dinosaur leapt on its victim and pinned it under its body weight, using the big claw as these birds use a talon, to keep its grip on struggling prey.

A 2005 BBC test with a mechanical raptor leg and a pork belly found the sickle claw failed to do what?

Tear the abdomen open. The claw punctured the pork but could not rip it, which sank the old picture of raptors disembowelling their prey; experts now see it as a hook for pinning victims down.

Comparisons of scleral rings suggest Velociraptor was active mostly when?

Its horned prey seems to have been active in short bursts through the day, so the famous fight may have happened at twilight.

A 2012 paper described a Velociraptor with the bone of what animal in its gut?

An azhdarchid pterosaur. The flying reptile was too big and dangerous for a small raptor to tackle, so experts think it picked the bone from a carcass instead of making the kill.

Unhealed tooth punctures on one Velociraptor skull show the animal was probably killed by what?

One of its own kind: the two rows of holes match the size and spacing of Velociraptor teeth. The bone never began to heal, so the bite to the head was probably what killed it.

In Jurassic Park III, what do the Velociraptors hunt the stranded humans to get back?

Their stolen eggs. Grant's assistant Billy took them from a nest, hoping to sell them to fund the dig, and the raptors retreat as soon as they have reclaimed them.

Which actor plays Alan Grant, the palaeontologist who digs up a raptor skeleton in Jurassic Park?

Sam Neill. Early in the film his Grant scares a mocking boy with a fossil raptor claw, acting out how the animal would slash its prey.

Which of these famous dinosaurs had already been extinct for tens of millions of years when Velociraptor lived?

Stegosaurus. It died out about 145 million years ago, so it lay about as far in Velociraptor's past as Velociraptor lies in ours, while the other three were among the very last dinosaurs of all.

The Jurassic Park raptors were actually modelled on which related dinosaur?

Deinonychus. By its discoverer's account, the novel's author apologised for borrowing the smaller animal's name, saying Velociraptor simply sounded 'more dramatic'.

Which author put Velociraptor at the centre of his 1990 novel Jurassic Park?

Michael Crichton. He met Yale palaeontologist John Ostrom several times while writing it and, by Ostrom's account, based his raptors on Ostrom's own find in almost every detail.

In the Jurassic Park novel and film, palaeontologists dig up a raptor skeleton in which US state?

Montana, where the bigger relative the film raptors were modelled on really is found. The crew planned to shoot the dig there but used Red Rock Canyon instead to save time and money.

Which giant relative of Velociraptor, found in 1991, matched the oversized raptors Jurassic Park's crew had already built?

Utahraptor. 'After we created it, they discovered it,' joked the film's effects chief, and the real animal proved even bigger than the screen raptors.

The giant raptor named in 1993 was at first going to be named in honour of which film director?

Steven Spielberg. The planned name 'spielbergi' was dropped shortly before publication, for reasons the accounts dispute, and the species honours a palaeontologist and a robot-dinosaur maker instead.

In which Jurassic Park movie did the male raptor first get quill-like structures on its head and neck?

The third one, Jurassic Park III. The first two films came out before feathered raptor relatives were found, and the later Jurassic World films went back to scaly raptors to match the originals.

Which raptor was finally shown feathered in Jurassic World Dominion?

Pyroraptor, named with the Greek word for fire because its bones turned up in Provence after a forest fire in 1992. The same film kept its Velociraptors scaly to match the earlier movies.

Jurassic Park's popularity inspired the name of an NBA team that began play in 1995 in which Canadian city?

Toronto. Management first leaned towards reviving the old Huskies name but feared any logo would look like Minnesota's Timberwolves, so a national contest was held and Raptors won out.

In the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil, where is the Velociraptor's sickle claw lodged?

In its opponent's throat, near the windpipe and the main blood vessels. That placement suggests the claw was used to stab at vital spots while the prey was held down.

Which beaked dinosaur from Velociraptor's Gobi home was named for raiding a nest that proved to be its own?

Oviraptor. Its first skeleton lay on a nest thought to belong to another dinosaur, but later finds of its relatives sitting on nests showed it died brooding its own eggs.

Which actor plays Owen Grady, the raptor trainer of the Jurassic World films?

Chris Pratt, who was cast only after Josh Brolin turned the part down. His Owen is a Navy veteran who has trained four raptors to follow his commands.

Which effects artist built the full-size animatronic raptors of Jurassic Park?

Stan Winston. The director hired him after seeing his Alien Queen in Aliens, and for some shots the raptors were simply played by men in suits.

Which of Owen Grady's four trained raptors is the only one to survive Jurassic World?

Blue. Charlie, Delta and Echo are all killed before the credits roll, while Blue recovers to help win the final fight and then slips away on her own.

What do scientists think Velociraptor's long tail was mainly for?

Keeping its balance. Bony rods stiffened the tail into a counterweight for running and leaping, though one fossil with its tail bent into an S shows it was more flexible than once thought.

In Jurassic Park, two Velociraptors stalk the children Lex and Tim through which room of the visitor centre?

The kitchen. The set took its inspiration from the hotel kitchen in The Shining, and the scene was one of only two from the novel that the film was required to keep.

Which Jurassic Park character says 'Clever girl' just before a raptor ambushes him?

Robert Muldoon, the park's game warden. He is taking aim at one raptor when another attacks from the side; in the novel, the character survives.

Velociraptor was first filed in a 'wastebin' family named after which dinosaur, the first ever to be named?

Megalosaurus, named in 1824, before the word 'dinosaur' even existed. So many unrelated meat-eaters were filed with it that the group became a dumping ground, and Velociraptor was later moved out.

Which hybrid dinosaur in Jurassic World takes command of Owen Grady's raptors because it shares their DNA?

Indominus rex. Owen realises the creature is 'part raptor' when his animals start communicating with it, and it briefly becomes their alpha before they turn back to his side.

In a 2011 model of raptor hunting, when did the raptor start eating its pinned prey?

While it was still alive. In this picture the raptor grips with its claws and starts feeding at once, and the victim dies of blood loss instead of a killing bite.