Velociraptor

Velociraptor is one of the best-known dromaeosaurids. Henry Fairfield Osborn named it in 1924 from a remarkably preserved skull and forelimb collected on the AMNH expedition to Mongolia. Two species are recognised today: V. mongoliensis (the type) and V. osmolskae, named in 2008 from skull material in the Chinese Bayan Mandahu Formation.

The animal was small, about the size of a turkey or a coyote, at roughly 2 m total length. Most of that length is a long, stiffened tail. The skull is long and low, with conical recurved teeth and a sharply upcurved snout that is autapomorphic for the genus. The hand bears three long fingers tipped with curved claws. The foot carries the characteristic sickle claw on the second toe, held clear of the ground in life and rotated down for use.

Velociraptor was fully feathered. The most direct evidence is Turner et al. (2007), which described quill knobs (the bony attachment points for primary feathers) preserved on a Velociraptor ulna (IGM 100/981). Quill knobs are the same anatomical feature seen in many modern flying birds. Velociraptor itself was almost certainly flightless at this size, but its primary feathers were demonstrably pennaceous.

The most famous Velociraptor fossil is the Fighting Dinosaurs specimen (MPC-D 100/25): a Velociraptor and Protoceratops preserved locked in combat, with the Velociraptor's sickle claw embedded in the protoceratopsid's neck and the protoceratopsid's beak clamped onto the Velociraptor's arm. The pair was buried alive by a sand collapse during the fight roughly 75 mya. It is one of the most direct pieces of behavioural evidence ever found in a fossil.

Fowler et al. (2011) reinterpreted the sickle claw as a prey-restraint weapon, used to grapple and pin small to medium prey while the jaws and forelimbs did the killing. The model was drawn from modern raptors and seriemas, which use their talons in much the same way. The older "slashing blade" reading no longer has consensus.

Pack hunting in Velociraptor is contested. No clear bonebed exists, and most workers interpret Velociraptor as a solitary or loosely associated predator that took small prey: juvenile Protoceratops, mammals, lizards.

• Fighting Dinosaurs (MPC-D 100/25) — Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar.
• AMNH 6515 — Osborn's holotype skull and forelimb, American Museum of Natural History.
• IGM 100/981 — Mongolian specimen with quill knobs preserved on the ulna (Turner et al. 2007).

Sickle-claw function: current consensus is prey restraint, not slashing. Pack hunting: probably solitary or loose; no strong bonebed evidence. Species validity: V. osmolskae (2008) is widely accepted but comes from a different formation; some workers suggest the differences may be partly preservational. Feathering extent: quill knobs prove pennaceous primaries, but full-body coverage is inferred.

Jurassic Park (1993) scaled Velociraptor up to Deinonychus size, stripped the feathers, and gave it doorknob-turning intelligence. The film's "raptor" became one of the most recognisable dinosaurs in cinema and displaced the real animal in public imagination. Jurassic World Dominion (2022) finally added feathers, decades late. Prehistoric Planet gets it right.

• dromaeosauridae
• deinonychus
• utahraptor
• microraptor
• protoceratops

• Norell, M. A., & Makovicky, P. J. (1999). Important features of the dromaeosaurid skeleton II: information from newly collected specimens of Velociraptor mongoliensis. American Museum Novitates, 3282, 1–45.
• Turner, A. H., et al. (2007). Feather quill knobs in the dinosaur Velociraptor. Science, 317, 1721.
• Fowler, D. W., et al. (2011). The predatory ecology of Deinonychus and the origin of flapping in birds. PLOS ONE, 6, e28964.
• Carpenter, K. (1998). Evidence of predatory behavior by carnivorous dinosaurs. Gaia, 15, 135–144.