How big was a real Velociraptor?
The real Velociraptor was far smaller than the towering hunters in Jurassic Park. It measured about two metres from nose to tail and weighed roughly 15 kilograms. Much of that length was tail, though. Its body was closer in size to a large turkey’s.
Length is not height
An animal two metres long is not necessarily two metres tall. Velociraptor held its body low to the ground, with its long tail stretched out behind.
Put its card next to the T. rex card. The difference in length and in weight is enormous.
Why the film version is bigger
The film-makers wanted predators that looked frightening. The proportions of their animals were closer to those of a bigger relative, Deinonychus, than to a real Velociraptor’s.
A real name in a film doesn’t mean you’re seeing the real animal. For the true size, trust the fossils.
Feathers without flight
A forearm bone shows the points where feathers were attached. So Velociraptor had feathered arms, as well as teeth and a long tail, but it could not fly.
Its feathers may have kept it warm and helped it show off to other animals.
The curved claw
Each foot carried a large, curved claw. Scientists study its shape to work out how Velociraptor used it when hunting.
Velociraptor lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia and the regions nearby. It was an animal in its own right, not a pocket-sized film monster.
Remembering its real shape
Picture a low body, a long tail, feathers and a curved claw on each foot. Draw a person beside it and the scale becomes clear.
The Velociraptor and T. rex cards let you compare two very different theropods.
Questions kids ask
- How big was Velociraptor?
- About two metres long, tail included, and roughly 15 kilograms in weight.
- Why is it so big in Jurassic Park?
- The film version looks more like a bigger relative, and it was designed to be frightening on screen.
- Did it have feathers?
- Yes. Marks on a fossil forearm bone show where the feathers were attached.
- Did it hunt in packs?
- Nobody knows yet. The well-organised packs in the films are not something the fossils show.
- Could it have fought T. rex?
- They lived in different places and at different times. T. rex was vastly bigger, too.
- Was Velociraptor a bird?
- No. It was a theropod dinosaur and a close relative of birds.
Remember this
- When you compare lengths, measure the whole animal, tail and all.
- Give your Velociraptor feathers when you draw it.
- To tell the real animal from the film version, go by fossils and measurements.