Happy Velociraptor Appreciation Day, everyone! Let us appreciate these wonderful animals.

I know this is how we picture them:


But this is what they really looked like:

(Okay, this is the close cousin Acheroraptor)



And size-wise they were equivalent to a turkey. But way more intelligent and dangerous.

My son hates how they're portrayed in Jurassic Park. Heck, he hates that they're even in Jurassic Park.

How much of that is the artist's guess? For instance, do we know anything about feather color?

dargscisyhp said:

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How much of that is the artist's guess? For instance, do we know anything about feather color?

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The colors and even the extent of the plumage are guesses at this point. That they were covered in feathers is well known, but there aren't feathers we can test on Velociraptor for color.

dargscisyhp said:

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This is just common sense.

AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

Similarly, which sounds better, Jurassic Park or Mostly Cretaceous Park?

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True. Saw this the other day:

AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

Similarly, which sounds better, Jurassic Park or Mostly Cretaceous Park?

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The Raptors in Jurassic Park are too big even for Deinonychus. But in truth, Deinonychus is a cooler name. It translates to "Terrible Claw," while Velociraptor translates to "Swift Taker" or "Swift Thief."

Dr. Watson said:

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"Swift Thief."

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Yea, but it's thieving your life.


I would rather fight a terrible claw than the manifestation of death itself.

The Velociraptor is cute and cuddly compared to the Quetzacoatlus (also from Late Cretaceous). That thing terrifies me every time we go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Dr. Watson said:

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AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

Similarly, which sounds better, Jurassic Park or Mostly Cretaceous Park?

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The Raptors in Jurassic Park are too big even for Deinonychus. But in truth, Deinonychus is a cooler name. It translates to "Terrible Claw," while Velociraptor translates to "Swift Taker" or "Swift Thief."

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They're about the size of Utahraptor.

Thread derail:

There is a part of me that is irritated that all the Jurassic Park films focus on making each main dinosaur "villain" bigger (T-Rex < 2 - T-Rexes < Spinosaurus < Hybrid Rex + Raptor < Giant Hybrid Raptor) when some of the best sequences from all the movies are when they are being hunted by the mansized raptors.

End derailment.

And now my contribution:

AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

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I'm going Velociraptor.

Deinonychus is clearly a toga wearing character from a Greek story.

kurt vonnegut said:

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AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

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I'm going Velociraptor.

Deinonychus is clearly a toga wearing character from a Greek story.

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Who probably had an unrequited crush on his mother, too.

kurt vonnegut said:

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AstroAg17 said:

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What name sounds scarier, velociraptor or deinonychus?

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I'm going Velociraptor.

Deinonychus is clearly a toga wearing character from a Greek story.

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Not possible. If I'm not mistaken, the toga-wearing era of Ancient Greece was about 3,000 years ago. Per Answers in Genesis, the flood occurred 4,366 years ago. Given that we have no record of them being on the Ark, nor any record of them existing after the flood, I think it's safe to assume they went extinct somewhere between Creation (6,000 years ago) and the flood (4,366 years ago). Therefore, it's unlikely, if not impossible, that the Greeks would have even known about the Deinonychus. Especially given that the only remains have been discovered in North America.

Science* is hard.

If anyone is looking for a lost velociraptor:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3qD56V8PqjCKzHdb2

Does anyone else think armadillos are the opposite of velociraptors? Here's why: