Velociraptor
genus of dinosaur (fossil) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Velociraptor [1] was a predatory dromaeosaur of the Upper Cretaceous, about 75–71 million years ago.[2]
Velociraptor Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous | |
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Velociraptor. | |
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Genus: | Velociraptor |
It was a slender, lightly built carnivore. It was about two meters long (nearly seven feet) and 0.62 meters tall at the hip.
Velociraptor had one sickle-shaped claw on its foot which measured 6.5 centimeters along its length, and a smaller one on each hand. Velociraptor was warm blooded and had feathers.
Fossils from China suggest that the whole clade had similar traits.[3][4][5]
Fossils of Velociraptor were first found in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1922. In 1988, scientists from China found Velociraptor skeletons in northern China.[6]
A famous Velociraptor, discovered in 1971, was found attacking a Protoceratops in a fossil from Mongolia.