![]() But that’s a level of brainpower likely on par with average birds rather than the likes of chimps or parrots. It’s true that this dinosaur had a large brain in proportion to its body, making it one of the more intelligent dinosaurs. Velociraptor also probably wasn’t as intelligent as popular culture has made it out to be. In 2011, scientists also theorized that these predators were nocturnal, as their scleral ring-a bony disc that reinforces the eye-was wide and would have let in enough light to see at night. Despite the famous fossilization of a battle to the death between a Velociraptor and a much-larger Protoceratops, paleontologists believe that Velociraptors mainly preyed on small mammals and reptiles. Given the chance, this predator likely wouldn’t have hunted humans, either. Learn which ones were the largest and the smallest, what dinosaurs ate and how they behaved, as well as surprising facts about their extinction. Over a thousand dinosaur species once roamed the Earth. These tests revealed that the dinosaur’s diet changed as it aged-a dietary diversity that isn’t generally seen among pack animals. A 2007 study conducted chemical tests of Velociraptor relative Deinonychus’ teeth to find out whether the dinosaur’s young ate the same foods as adults. But there’s little evidence that this was the case-in fact, quite the contrary. In Jurassic Park, Velociraptors were depicted as pack hunters. By moving with their clawed toes lifted, Velociraptors kept their talons sharp enough to pierce prey once it was in their grasp, they likely finished the job with a jaw full of serrated teeth. Their muscular legs and long shins allowed them to take long strides and reach speeds estimated to hit 24 miles an hour. The bipeds had an excellent sense of smell, evidenced by the size and shape of the part of their skulls that held olfactory bulbs, the part of the brain that processes scent. ![]() Given a Latin name that means “quick plunderer,” Velociraptors clearly were thought to have been effective hunters. Although scientists once theorized the claws may have been used for slashing, most now believe that the dinosaur used them to pierce and pin down prey as hawks do. Still, Velociraptors are often likened to birds of prey such as eagles and hawks because of the long claw protruding from the second toe of each foot. Instead, the 2007 study hypothesized that Velociraptor’s feathers might have been an evolutionary leftover from smaller ancestors that could fly, or they might have served to attract mates, shield nests from the cold, or maneuver while running. Not only were its arms too short for flying, but Velociraptor’s wishbone-a forked bone between the neck and breast that generally serves as a spring to help birds fly-wasn’t the right shape to support flapping wings. Unlike many of its avian relatives, however, this dinosaur was Earth-bound. ![]() In 2007, a study published in the journal Science found that a Velociraptor mongoliensis fossil had quill knobs-bumps along its forearm that anchor feather quills to the bone and are common in modern birds. Researchers have long suspected that Velociraptors were feathered rather than covered with reptilian scales. This family connection explains why Velociraptors had many traits found in modern-day birds, including their hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists, wishbones, and forward-facing toes. There’s strong consensus among scientists that today’s birds are actually dinosaurs, and that they evolved from theropods, a family of three-toed predators that included Velociraptor mongoliensis and Tyrannosaurus rex. So what were Velociraptors really like? Although our knowledge is still growing as more fossil evidence is unearthed, paleontologists have managed to learn a lot about these iconic predators. In fact, the raptors that terrorized Jurassic Park were based on a Velociraptor relative: Deinonychus antirrhopus, a much larger dinosaur that inhabited North America in the early Cretaceous period, about 145 to 100 million years ago. And they likely hunted solo-using their claws to clutch rather than slash prey- when they roamed central and eastern Asia between about 74 million and 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period. They grew up to 100 pounds, about the size of a wolf. Velociraptors were actually feathered animals. Velociraptors have been misunderstood ever since they were featured in Jurassic Park as giant scaly dinosaurs that hunted in packs and disemboweled prey with sickle-shaped claws.
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