Questions people actually ask

Velociraptor means “quick plunderer”. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)

You say it vel-OSS-ee-rap-tor. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory)

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

Its fossils come from Mongolia. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory) 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)

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 The Natural History Museum calls it a turkey-sized predator. Natural History Museum: Vicious Velociraptor: tales of a turkey-sized dinosaur Next to a grown-up, it would have been no more than waist-high. Smithsonian Magazine: You say “Velociraptor,” I say “Deinonychus”

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 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

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

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 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

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 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

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

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 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

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 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

The Jurassic Park films made Velociraptor twice its real size, closely modelled on its relative Deinonychus. Natural History Museum: Velociraptor (Dino Directory) 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

The Fighting Dinosaurs were found in 1971 by a Mongolian-Polish expedition. American Museum of Natural History, OLogy card 038: Fighting Dinosaurs 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

Strictly speaking, all birds are dinosaurs. But not all dinosaurs are birds. Natural History Museum: Archaeopteryx (Dino Directory) 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

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 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