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160 Velociraptor facts, all checked

Every fact on this site in one place, each linked to its source. Our build checks each one against the source text; see the sources page. Figures that can change carry the date we checked them, and where sources disagree you’ll find both.

Jump to: The basics | Size (estimates vary) | Film vs fossil | The claw | Feathers and birds | How it lived | The Fighting Dinosaurs | Discovery | The raptor relatives | Its world

The basics

  1. 1 Velociraptor means “quick plunderer”. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  2. 2 You say it vel-OSS-ee-rap-tor. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  3. 3 It was described in 1924 by Henry Fairfield Osborn, then president of the American Museum of Natural History. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  4. 4 The Natural History Museum dates it to the Late Cretaceous, 74 to 70 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  5. 5 Its fossils come from Mongolia. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  6. 6 It was a meat eater, with lots of sharp, pointed teeth. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  7. 7 It belongs to the dromaeosaurs (Dromaeosauridae), a family of theropods. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  8. 8 Like Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor was a theropod dinosaur. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  9. 9 “Raptor” isn’t a proper scientific term. Scientists say dromaeosaurs: small to medium-sized hunters with large toe claws. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory)
  10. 10 Thanks to its film career, it is one of the most famous non-bird dinosaurs in the world. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  11. 11 Its full scientific name is Velociraptor mongoliensis. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)

Size (estimates vary)

  1. 12 The Natural History Museum gives its length as 1.8 m and its weight as 7 kg. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  2. 13 The Natural History Museum calls it a turkey-sized predator. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  3. 14 The Velociraptor in the 2007 feather study stood about three feet (0.9 m) tall, was about five feet (1.5 m) long and weighed about 30 pounds (14 kg). American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007 · checked 28 Oct 2026
  4. 15 Next to a grown-up, it would have been no more than waist-high. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”
  5. 16 Velociraptor and Protoceratops were similar lengths, but Protoceratops was much bulkier. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur

Film vs fossil

  1. 17 The Jurassic Park films made Velociraptor twice its real size, closely modelled on its relative Deinonychus. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  2. 18 The film raptors were based on the much larger Deinonychus, but the name Velociraptor was “more dramatic and easier to say”. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  3. 19 When Velociraptor appeared in the novel Jurassic Park, the author based its details on the bigger Deinonychus. The films did the same. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory)
  4. 20 In his 1988 book Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, the artist Gregory S. Paul put Deinonychus fossils under the name Velociraptor. Palaeontologists didn’t agree, and the two stayed separate. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”
  5. 21 Michael Crichton listed Paul in the acknowledgements of his novel Jurassic Park, and used the name Velociraptor for its large, sickle-clawed predators. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”
  6. 22 Steven Spielberg’s film Jurassic Park came out in 1993. Natural History Museum: Debunking dinosaur myths and movie misconceptions
  7. 23 The film’s raptors were seen as unscientifically big. Then, says the Natural History Museum, soon after the first film came out Utahraptor “was discovered, even larger than the virtual Velociraptors”. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)
  8. 24 Utahraptor’s describer considered naming the species after Steven Spielberg, hoping the director’s company would help fund the research. The deal never happened. Natural History Museum: Utahraptor (Dino Directory)
  9. 25 The Natural History Museum’s Susie Maidment says the biggest mistake now is that the film raptors are naked: “It’s absolutely certain that they would have been covered in feathers.” Natural History Museum: Debunking dinosaur myths and movie misconceptions · checked 28 Oct 2026
  10. 26 In 1993, scientists did think Velociraptor and Deinonychus looked like that. A flood of feathered dinosaur discoveries began in the mid-1990s. Natural History Museum: Debunking dinosaur myths and movie misconceptions
  11. 27 No evidence of claw tapping has ever been found. Tracks of Velociraptor’s relatives show no marks from the sickle claw. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  12. 28 The Natural History Museum’s David Button thinks the tapping was “just a cinematic ploy to make them look alert and more scary”. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  13. 29 Button thinks feathered film raptors would be creepier: “something we recognise but a bit wrong”. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  14. 30 In the films, Velociraptor is smart enough to solve puzzles and open doors. Natural History Museum: Utahraptor (Dino Directory)
  15. 31 Meat-eating dinosaurs are often drawn with “bunny hands”, palms down like a pianist’s. Natural History Museum: Debunking dinosaur myths and movie misconceptions
  16. 32 Meat-eating dinosaurs couldn’t turn their palms to face the ground. Their palms faced each other: “they could clap, but they weren’t pianists.” Natural History Museum: Debunking dinosaur myths and movie misconceptions
  17. 33 One of the very first Velociraptor fossils was a beautiful skull. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”

The claw

  1. 34 The famous curved claw sits on the second toe of each foot. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  2. 35 Osborn assumed the big curved claw came from the hand. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  3. 36 In his 1924 paper he wrote that the claw bones “probably belong to the enlarged Digit I of the manus”: the first finger. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  4. 37 The claw could grow to more than 6.5 cm around its outer edge. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  5. 38 In life, a horny sheath covered the toe and finger bones, which would have made the claws about twice the size of the bones you see. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  6. 39 Velociraptor walked on two toes and held the sickle claw up off the ground, presumably to keep it sharp. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  7. 40 Theropods usually had three toes on each foot. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  8. 41 A mechanical model of the claw, built for the BBC documentary The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs, couldn’t disembowel anything. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  9. 42 The scientists behind it built a hydraulic leg to the dimensions of Velociraptor and Deinonychus. Its claw made small, round puncture wounds 30 to 40 mm deep, and never slashed. Manning, Payne, Pennicott, Barrett & Ennos (2006), Dinosaur killer claws or climbing crampons?, Biology Letters
  10. 43 They concluded the claws gripped the hides of prey many times larger than the raptor, like climbing crampons. Manning, Payne, Pennicott, Barrett & Ennos (2006), Dinosaur killer claws or climbing crampons?, Biology Letters
  11. 44 Research suggests the claw was for stabbing, not slashing, and was probably used as a hook to stop prey escaping. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  12. 45 Button: “If you look at the claw it looks just like the talon of an eagle, which is used to grip prey and pin it down.” Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  13. 46 A 2011 study suggested the claw worked like the big talon on the second toe of hawks and eagles, holding prey pinned under the predator’s weight. Fowler, Freedman, Scannella & Kambic (2011), The predatory ecology of Deinonychus and the origin of flapping in birds, PLOS ONE
  14. 47 The same study described “stability flapping”: flapping the feathered arms to stay balanced on top of struggling prey. Fowler, Freedman, Scannella & Kambic (2011), The predatory ecology of Deinonychus and the origin of flapping in birds, PLOS ONE
  15. 48 It also suggested that this grasping foot later helped birds perch in trees. Fowler, Freedman, Scannella & Kambic (2011), The predatory ecology of Deinonychus and the origin of flapping in birds, PLOS ONE
  16. 49 Osborn thought the claws were for holding prey, and that its long snout and wide gape meant the prey was alive and “of considerable size”. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144

Feathers and birds

  1. 50 In 2007, quill knobs on a Velociraptor fossil proved it had long feathers, attached from its second finger and up its arms. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  2. 51 Scientists found six quill knobs, the bumps where feathers anchor to bone, on a Velociraptor forearm dug up in Mongolia in 1998. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  3. 52 The study was by palaeontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum, and appeared in the journal Science. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  4. 53 Living birds have quill knobs too. They show most clearly in strong fliers. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  5. 54 As the study’s lead author put it, a lack of quill knobs doesn’t necessarily mean a dinosaur had no feathers. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  6. 55 Close relatives, including Microraptor and Zhenyuanlong, have been found with their feathers preserved. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  7. 56 Velociraptor was covered in thin filaments, and the feathers on its tail and forearms would look right at home on a living bird. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  8. 57 It couldn’t fly. Its wishbone wasn’t the right shape for flapping wings, its wings were too small to glide, and its feathers were symmetrical, unlike a flying bird’s. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  9. 58 The 2007 study’s authors suggested that an ancestor of Velociraptor may have lost the ability to fly but kept its feathers. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  10. 59 The feathers may have been for display, for shielding nests, for keeping warm, or for help with turning while running. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  11. 60 There is quite good evidence that dromaeosaurs ran warm, and feathers would have kept that heat in. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  12. 61 Some oviraptorosaurs, Velociraptor’s cousins, are preserved brooding over their eggs like a chicken. Velociraptor may have done the same, but no fossil proves it. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026
  13. 62 Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and co-author of the 2007 study: “If animals like Velociraptor were alive today our first impression would be that they were just very unusual looking birds.” American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  14. 63 Norell also lists what birds and Velociraptor share: wishbones, brooding their nests, hollow bones and feathers. American Museum of Natural History: Velociraptor Had Feathers, Study Confirms, 2007
  15. 64 Its bird-like features include hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists and a wishbone. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  16. 65 Button suggests thinking of Velociraptor as a “land eagle”. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  17. 66 Meet one today and it might look like a stretched-out bird of prey with a very long tail, clawed hands and teeth instead of a beak. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  18. 67 Like living birds and reptiles, it had a ring of bone in each eye socket. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  19. 68 Chasing prey on foot is bird-like too: most birds spend more time walking than flying. American Museum of Natural History: Get to Know a Dino: Velociraptor, 2016
  20. 69 It’s usually almost impossible for scientists to know what colour a dinosaur was in life, so nobody knows Velociraptor’s colours. Natural History Museum: Archaeopteryx (Dino Directory)

How it lived

  1. 70 It probably ate mostly small mammals and reptiles that were easy to overpower and kill. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  2. 71 It may sometimes have hunted baby dinosaurs: young Protoceratops, baby Oviraptor and the thick-headed Prenocephale. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  3. 72 Despite the famous fossil, it seems very unlikely that Velociraptor regularly hunted grown-up Protoceratops. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  4. 73 Its teeth were replaced throughout its life, like a lizard’s or crocodile’s, and curved backwards to stop prey escaping. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  5. 74 Its narrow jaws and light build suggest it fed on quite small prey. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  6. 75 One Velociraptor fossil has a broken pterosaur bone inside its body, part of its last meal. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  7. 76 That pterosaur probably had a wingspan of around 3 m, bigger than the Velociraptor that ate it. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  8. 77 Scientists think it was more likely scavenged. Eating a large bone suggests there wasn’t much meat left on the carcass. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  9. 78 In 2010, scientists reported Protoceratops bones scored by the teeth of a small predatory dinosaur, after the carcass had been almost stripped. Velociraptor is a good candidate for the scavenger. Smithsonian Magazine: A dinosaur’s pterosaur lunch
  10. 79 In 1995, scientists reported a pterosaur skeleton bitten by Saurornitholestes, a North American cousin of Velociraptor. A tooth was still stuck in it. Smithsonian Magazine: A dinosaur’s pterosaur lunch
  11. 80 “Pretty much all predators scavenge sometimes, and vice versa.” Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  12. 81 Most of its body points to a good hunter: a lithe build, clawed hands and feet, and jaws made for quick, snapping bites. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  13. 82 Button expects it could run at over 40 km/h, at least in short bursts. That’s faster than the fastest human. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026
  14. 83 Quick, but not the fastest dinosaur. That title goes to the ostrich-like ornithomimosaurs. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  15. 84 It had big, muscular legs with long shins, and a long, stiff tail that helped it steer at speed. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  16. 85 Its brain was large for its body compared with most reptiles. Button: smart “like an average bird – a hawk or something like that”, not like a chimp, a parrot or a crow. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026
  17. 86 There’s an urban myth that Velociraptor scores higher than humans on brain-to-body size. It clearly doesn’t. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  18. 87 Despite the films, there’s very little evidence that raptors hunted as cooperative packs. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026
  19. 88 The pack idea came from several Deinonychus found around one much larger Tenontosaurus. They might have been scavenging, or simply washed together and buried. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  20. 89 Some trackways show several Velociraptor-sized dinosaurs walking the same way, which could mean flocking or following. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  21. 90 Komodo dragons and many birds of prey hunt by “mobbing”: one attacks, and others join in. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  22. 91 There isn’t currently any evidence of Velociraptor hunting together in any way, though that doesn’t mean it never did. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026
  23. 92 Several Utahraptor were found with a plant eater called Hippodraco, probably after getting stuck in quicksand. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  24. 93 Because of the large bony ring in its eye, some scientists have suggested Velociraptor was nocturnal. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  25. 94 Big eyes once suggested night hunting for Microraptor too, but its glossy feathers make that less likely: no living bird with a shiny coat hunts at night. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory)
  26. 95 Osborn described it in 1924 as “swift and raptorial in habit”. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144

The Fighting Dinosaurs

  1. 96 The Fighting Dinosaurs were found in 1971 by a Mongolian-Polish expedition. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  2. 97 The Velociraptor’s foot claw is in the Protoceratops’s throat, and the Velociraptor’s arm is crushed in the Protoceratops’s mouth. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  3. 98 The Protoceratops fought back and broke the Velociraptor’s right arm. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  4. 99 The fossil is considered a national treasure of Mongolia. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  5. 100 The specimen is about 2.5 m (8 feet) across. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  6. 101 It’s often called one of the greatest fossil specimens ever found. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos
  7. 102 The Natural History Museum calls it the most dramatic evidence ever found of two dinosaurs fighting. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  8. 103 The curved necks and tails suggest both were buried alive. Muscles relax when an animal dies, so a dead animal’s neck and tail would probably have straightened. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos
  9. 104 The American Museum of Natural History favours a sand avalanche: a steep dune collapsing on them. A sandstorm would have taken too long, and quicksand would have left them flailing. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos
  10. 105 The Natural History Museum says they were buried by a sandstorm or a collapsing sand dune. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  11. 106 Scientists think rainstorms triggered sand avalanches like this, and other animals in the same rocks seem to have died trying to dig themselves out. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  12. 107 The pair were found in red sandstone called the Djadokhta Formation, in the Gobi Desert. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  13. 108 Nobody knows why they were fighting. Was Velociraptor hunting, or was it attacked by a territorial Protoceratops? Smithsonian Magazine: A dinosaur’s pterosaur lunch
  14. 109 If the Velociraptor was hunting, Button says it was probably desperate or inexperienced: carnivores rarely attack something bigger unless it’s sick, injured or old. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  15. 110 Perhaps Protoceratops started it. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  16. 111 The American Museum of Natural History’s OLogy card says Velociraptor preyed on dinosaurs like Protoceratops and probably started the fight. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  17. 112 Some scientists believe Protoceratops was defending its nest. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs
  18. 113 Some of the Protoceratops’s bones are missing. They may have eroded away, or the Velociraptor may have been eating an animal that was already dead. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos
  19. 114 Button: “All we can say with some certainty is that these two dinosaurs had a fight before they were engulfed in sand.” Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  20. 115 The American Museum of Natural History dates the Fighting Dinosaurs to about 80 million years ago. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs · checked 28 Oct 2026
  21. 116 The Natural History Museum puts both dinosaurs at some 74 to 70 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur · checked 28 Oct 2026

Discovery

  1. 117 The first Velociraptor fossil was found on 11 August 1923 in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  2. 118 The first find was the claw, with a complete but crushed skull, on an American Museum of Natural History expedition. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  3. 119 The type specimen, AMNH 6515, is a skull, jaws and a claw, collected by P. C. Kaisen in the Djadochta beds at Shabarakh Usu. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  4. 120 The very first Velociraptor skull was lying right next to a Protoceratops skull. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  5. 121 Osborn named three new dinosaurs in the same short 1924 paper: Velociraptor, Saurornithoides and Oviraptor. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  6. 122 Oviraptor, the “egg seizer”, got its name because its skull was found lying directly over a nest of eggs. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  7. 123 Osborn himself warned the name “may entirely mislead us as to its feeding habits”. Osborn (1924), Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia, American Museum Novitates 144
  8. 124 The same 1923 expedition found the first dinosaur eggs known to science, at the Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia. American Museum of Natural History: Dinosaur Eggs
  9. 125 The eggs were thought to be Protoceratops eggs, because Protoceratops was the most common dinosaur there. American Museum of Natural History: Dinosaur Eggs
  10. 126 In the 1990s, museum expeditions found identical eggs, one holding the embryo of an Oviraptor-like dinosaur. Oviraptor was a parent, not an egg thief. American Museum of Natural History: Dinosaur Eggs
  11. 127 The expedition was led by Roy Chapman Andrews, who later became the museum’s director. American Museum of Natural History: Dinosaur Eggs
  12. 128 American Museum of Natural History scientists have been travelling to the Gobi for over 100 years. American Museum of Natural History: Fossils of the Flaming Cliffs (exhibition) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  13. 129 Since the museum returned to the Gobi in 1990, the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has kept ownership of all the fossils it finds. American Museum of Natural History: Fossils of the Flaming Cliffs (exhibition)
  14. 130 The first Deinonychus fossils were found in Montana by John Ostrom and Grant Meyer in 1964. Ostrom named it five years later. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory)
  15. 131 Ostrom’s work helped scientists see dinosaurs as athletic, warm-blooded animals rather than slow, lumbering ones: “the dinosaur renaissance”. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory)

The raptor relatives

  1. 132 Deinonychus: “terrible claw”, 3.4 m long and 100 kg, from the USA, 115 to 108 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory)
  2. 133 Deinonychus was almost twice as long and twice as tall as Velociraptor. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”
  3. 134 No one has found direct proof that Deinonychus had feathers, but scientists think it very likely did. Natural History Museum: Deinonychus (Dino Directory) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  4. 135 Utahraptor: “Utah plunderer”, 5.5 m long and 350 kg, from the USA, 139 to 135 million years ago. It is the largest known dromaeosaur. Natural History Museum: Utahraptor (Dino Directory)
  5. 136 Jim Jensen found the first Utahraptor remains in 1975, but it wasn’t studied in detail until more fossils were found in 1991. It was named in 1993. Natural History Museum: Utahraptor (Dino Directory)
  6. 137 Utahraptor is thought to have been about the size of a polar bear, 5 to 6 m long. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur
  7. 138 Utahraptor became Utah’s state dinosaur after a 10-year-old petitioned the state senate in 2018. Natural History Museum: Utahraptor (Dino Directory)
  8. 139 Microraptor: “tiny plunderer”, 0.8 m long and 1 kg, from China, 120 million years ago, with wings on its legs as well as its arms. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory)
  9. 140 Microraptor was about the size of a crow, and around 300 specimens have been found, more than any other dromaeosaur. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  10. 141 Pigment cells in a fossil found in 2012 show Microraptor probably had shiny black feathers. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory)
  11. 142 In 2019 scientists named a new lizard, Indrasaurus, found whole in a Microraptor’s belly. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory)
  12. 143 One early Microraptor fossil was part of the “Archaeoraptor” hoax: Microraptor’s tail had been added to the front half of a different small dinosaur, Yanornis, plus a third animal. Natural History Museum: Microraptor (Dino Directory)
  13. 144 Dromaeosaurus: “running lizard”, 1.8 m long and 15 kg, from Canada and the USA, 76 to 74 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Dromaeosaurus (Dino Directory)
  14. 145 Sinornithosaurus: “Chinese bird lizard”, 2 m long, from China, 122 to 120 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Sinornithosaurus (Dino Directory)
  15. 146 Bambiraptor: “Bambi plunderer”, 1 m long, from the USA, 84 to 71 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Bambiraptor (Dino Directory)
  16. 147 Archaeopteryx: “ancient wing”, 0.5 m long, from Germany, 149 to 145 million years ago. Its first fossil was found in 1861. Natural History Museum: Archaeopteryx (Dino Directory)
  17. 148 Strictly speaking, all birds are dinosaurs. But not all dinosaurs are birds. Natural History Museum: Archaeopteryx (Dino Directory)

Its world

  1. 149 Protoceratops: “first horned face”, a 1.8 m, 400 kg plant eater with a beak, from China and Mongolia, 74 to 70 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Protoceratops (Dino Directory) · checked 28 Oct 2026
  2. 150 Protoceratops is one of the best-known dinosaurs because its fossils are so common. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos
  3. 151 The American Museum of Natural History says it weighed up to 500 pounds (about 230 kg) and was shaped a bit like a pig. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy: Fighting Dinos · checked 28 Oct 2026
  4. 152 Oviraptor: “egg thief”, 2 m long and 20 kg, from Mongolia, 85 to 75 million years ago. It had a beak and no teeth. Natural History Museum: Oviraptor (Dino Directory)
  5. 153 Citipati: “lord of the funeral pyre”, 2.1 m long, from Mongolia, 81 to 75 million years ago. Natural History Museum: Citipati (Dino Directory)
  6. 154 Saurornithoides: “bird-like lizard”, 3 m long, from Mongolia, 85 to 80 million years ago, named by Osborn in 1924. Natural History Museum: Saurornithoides (Dino Directory)
  7. 155 Tarbosaurus: “alarming lizard”, 10 m long, from China and Mongolia, 74 to 70 million years ago, and very like Tyrannosaurus. Natural History Museum: Tarbosaurus (Dino Directory)
  8. 156 Pinacosaurus: “plank lizard”, 5 m long, from China and Mongolia, 81 to 75 million years ago. Groups of young ones have been found fossilised together. Natural History Museum: Pinacosaurus (Dino Directory)
  9. 157 Gallimimus: “chicken mimic”, 6 m long and 490 kg, from Mongolia, about 70 million years ago. It may have run at 47 to 55 km/h. Natural History Museum: Gallimimus (Dino Directory)
  10. 158 Jurassic Park shows a flock of Gallimimus stampeding. That’s possible, but nobody knows for sure. Natural History Museum: Gallimimus (Dino Directory)
  11. 159 The Gobi Desert holds some of the most extraordinary fossil beds in the world. American Museum of Natural History: Fossils of the Flaming Cliffs (exhibition)
  12. 160 A Gobi nest of troodontid eggs, found in 1995 with a just-hatched baby, had its eggs standing on end: a sign of parental care. American Museum of Natural History: Fossils of the Flaming Cliffs (exhibition)