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Scientific name; Velociraptor Mongoliensis
Lived during the late Cretaceous period 75- 71 MYA
Diet; Carnivore
Photo from Wikimedia
About the Velociraptor
The Velocitraptor is a dinosaur we know and love, made extremely popular by media through video games, movies, and books. But most of it is inaccurate, a trope started by the Jurassic Park franchise. The Velociraptor was about the size of a turkey, to balance the velociraptors height in the large world of the dinosaurs, they would hunt in packs. Very similar to many animals we see today.
Scientists have found Velociraptor bones that have feather notches in them. Paleontologists however, don’t know the exact purpose of these feathers but it is strongly believed they were for courtship or body temperature regulation. Paleontologists have over a dozen confirmed Velociraptor fossils so there is a decent amount of fossil evidence to back these hypotheses.
This dinosaur ate small insects, rodents, and lizards similar to modern birds of prey. The way this dinosaur hunted made it very unique. All raptor had a sickle like claw on each of its hind legs. This allowed the dinosaur to pounce on and pin prey easily. It used this to it’s advantage, adding to the weird ways animals evolved to survive.
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