Velociraptor

What it was like

Velociraptor was small for a dinosaur, roughly the size of a large dog, at about 2 meters long and around 15 kilograms in weight. It was covered in feathers, ran on two legs, and carried a curved claw on each foot that it probably used to grip and hold down prey.

Its skull was long and low with an upturned snout, and its jaws held many small, sharp teeth. Velociraptor was quick and likely relied on speed and surprise rather than size to catch smaller animals.

Its world

Velociraptor lived in the Late Cretaceous, from about 84 to 72 million years ago, in the dry, dune-covered landscape of what is now Mongolia. Its bones come mainly from the Djadokhta Formation, alongside plant eaters like Protoceratops and Pinacosaurus and other small hunters such as Saurornithoides.

One well-known fossil find shows a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops preserved together, apparently caught in a struggle when they died.

How it was found

Osborn named Velociraptor in 1924, choosing a name that means swift thief. About 16 fossil finds of the genus are known, a small number that still leaves plenty of open questions about how it lived.