Velociraptors are small, agile and slender dinosaurs with up-curved skulls and large sickle claws. They had strong jaws with rows of bladed teeth. These, in combination with very big claws on their hands and on one of their toes (the size of these claws could reach up to the length of the saber teeth on extinct cats) gave these some some impressive weaponry. Some different species have been found:
Velociraptor antirrhopus (Ostrum, 1969)
(Synonym : Deinonychus Antirrhopus)
- Skull length : 410 mm.
- Total length : 3.4 m.
- Hip height : 0.87 m.
- Weight : 73 kilograms
Velociraptor mongoliensis (Osborn, 1924)
- Skull length : 249 mm.
- Total length : 2.7 m.
- Hip height : 0.5 m.
- Weight : 15 kilograms
Talk section:
I vaguely remember that "Deinonychus antirrhopus" is now considered correct, that better specimens found in the last 10 years or so show that it is really not in the Velociraptor genus. Do we have any real paleontologists here with an opinion? BTW the "velociraptors" in the Jurassic Park movies are probably supposed to be antirrhopus, they certainly aren't Velociraptor mongoliensis. (But in any case they are wrong in several ways.)
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)