VERY INTERESTING: VELOCIRAPTOR

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Facts About the Velociraptor 

Thanks to the "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World" movies, the Velociraptor is one of the world's most well-known dinosaurs. However, there's a huge difference between the Hollywood version of the Velociraptor and the less imposing one familiar to paleontologists. How much do you really know about this surprisingly small, vicious predator?

Those Aren't Really Velociraptors in the 'Jurassic Park' Movies

It's a sad fact that the Velociraptor's claim to pop-culture fame in "Jurassic Park" is based on a lie. The special-effects wizards have long since confessed that they modeled their Velociraptor after the much bigger (and much more dangerous-looking) raptor Deinonychus antirrhopus, whose name isn't quite as catchy or as easy to pronounce and who lived about 30 million years before its more famous relative. "Jurassic World" had the chance to set the record straight, but it stuck with the big Velociraptor fib. If life were fair, Deinonychus would be a much better-known dinosaur than the Velociraptor, but that's the way the "Jurassic" amber crumbles. 

Velociraptor Had Feathers, not Scaly, Reptilian Skin

Extrapolating from the smaller, more primitive, feathered raptors that predated it by millions of years, paleontologists believe Velociraptors sported feathers, too, due to having quill knobs, just like today's birds, on their bones where feathers would have attached. Artists have depicted this dinosaur as possessing everything from pale, colorless, chicken-like tufts to green plumage worthy of a South American parrot. Whatever the case, Velociraptor almost certainly wasn't lizard-skinned, as it's portrayed in the "Jurassic" movies. (Assuming Velociraptors needed to sneak up on their prey, we're on safer ground assuming that they weren't too brightly feathered.)

Velociraptor Was About the Size of a Big Chicken

For a dinosaur that's often mentioned in the same breath as Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor was remarkably puny. This meat-eater weighed only approximately 30 pounds soaking wet (about the same as a good-sized human toddler) and was just 2 feet tall and 6 feet long. In fact, it would take six or seven adult Velociraptors to equal one average-sized Deinonychus, 500 to match a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex and 5,000 or so to equal the weight of one good-sized titanosaur —but who's counting? (Certainly not the people who script Hollywood movies.)

There's No Evidence That Velociraptors Hunted in Packs

To date, all of the dozen or so identified Velociraptor specimens have been of solitary individuals. The idea that Velociraptors ganged up on their prey in cooperative packs probably stems from the discovery of associated Deinonychus remains in North America. This larger raptor may have hunted in packs to bring down larger duck-billed dinosaurs such as Tenontosaurus, but there's no particular reason to extrapolate those findings to Velociraptor. But then again, there's no particular reason not to.

The Velociraptor's IQ Has Been Wildly Exaggerated

Remember that scene in "Jurassic Park " where a Velociraptor figures out how to turn a doorknob? Pure fantasy. Even the putatively smartest dinosaur of the Mesozoic Era, Troodon, was probably dumber than a newborn kitten, and it's a safe bet that no reptiles (extinct or extant) have ever learned how to use tools, with the possible exception of the American alligator. A real-life Velociraptor would likely have butted its head against that closed kitchen door until it knocked itself out and then its hungry pal would have feasted on its remains.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking