Velociraptor: Characteristics And Curiosities
Movies like Jurassic Park are responsible for the great popularity of dinosaurs. Thanks to them, names like Velociraptor or Tyrannosaurus have been etched in the minds of millions of people. However, the representations of animals that appear in these films are far from reality.
In the following lines we will talk about Velociraptor , one of the most famous dinosaurs and in turn the one that has been worst represented in popular culture. If you want to learn more about its characteristics and curiosities, keep reading.
What kind of dinosaur was Velociraptor?
The famous Velociraptor was a theropod, that is, it belonged to the group of bipedal dinosaurs that fed mainly on meat. Within the theropods there are also other dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus .
More specifically, Velociraptor was a dromaeosaurid. These animals were active predators of medium or small size closely related to current birds. As such, these animals showed many similarities to them.
One of the most striking features is that the dromaeosaurids were completely covered in feathers, which formed proto-wing-like structures on the arms, although it is still unknown whether many of them could fly or glide.
The similarities are such that some authors have suggested that dromaeosaurids were descendants of the first birds, which would have lost the ability to fly. Similar to ostriches, they would have re-adapted to running and hunting on land.
Even so, the most robust hypothesis so far is not this, but that Velociraptor and the like would be cousins of birds. They probably coincided in time with the first of them, but they took different evolutionary paths.
The appearance of the speedy thief
The true Velociraptor is a far cry from the large, robust and scaly animal that is often shown in the movies. This was a small, graceful dinosaur, measuring 2 meters long, 0.5 meters high, and weighed roughly 15 kilos. In addition, its long stiff tail was about half its length.
Velociraptor was completely covered in feathers, which formed the typical wings on the arms and a fan along the tail. The arms were too short, so it was probably not capable of flying or gliding.
However, the feathers served other functions. Among them, thermoregulation, maneuverability during movement or communication with other members of the species, as occurs in current birds, stood out.
On the other hand, this animal’s hands did not hang down with the palms facing inward as shown in Jurassic Park , as they are not mammals. Instead, these structures were held parallel to each other, with the palms pointing at each other. Its 3 fingers were long and allowed to manipulate objects and prey.
The hind legs were long and allowed to reach speeds of almost 40 kilometers per hour. In addition, one toe of each leg had a gigantic hooked claw, which is known as a killer claw.
Velociraptor ecology
This theropod lived in arid or desert environments, with temporary water flows, the presence of dunes and frequent sand storms, which buried many of the fossil animals found.
Velociraptor was a voracious predator, but there is no convincing evidence that it hunted in groups. In fact, the fossils found are solitary. In addition, some studies based on its sclerotic rings indicate that it was probably a nocturnal animal.
When it came to feeding, this animal used a strategy similar to that of today’s raptors: it jumped on its prey and immobilized them against the ground using its huge killer claws, which would serve both to fixate on the victim and to pierce vital organs.
It is believed that Velociraptor mostly consumed smaller mammals and reptiles, but thanks to the fossil of fighting dinosaurs it is known that this was not always the case.
This magnificent fossil shows the fight to the death between Velociraptor and Protoceratops, a larger herbivore. A sandstorm interrupted the fight and buried both dinosaurs, who have been immortalized in combat for the rest of history.
Unlike modern reptiles, Velociraptor and other dinosaurs were not cold-blooded. It is believed that they were mesotherms, with less accelerated metabolism than that of birds and mammals but more independent of external temperature than that of lizards and snakes.
Thanks to this, they could maintain a more active way of life than ectotherms, without the need to consume amounts of food as high as endotherms.
This dinosaur is one of the best known to science, since more than 12 fairly complete fossil skeletons have been found, a record among dromaeosaurids. However, there are always curiosities to discover about these amazing animals.
