Velociraptor

Velociraptor Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
Velociraptor.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
(unranked):	Coelurosauria
Family:	Dromaeosauridae
Genus:	Velociraptor

Velociraptor ^[1] was a predatory dromaeosaur of the Upper Cretaceous, about 75–71 million years ago.^[2]

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.

1. ↑ Velociraptor = 'swift robber', sometimes called 'raptor' for short.
2. ↑ Godefroit, Pascal et al 2008. A new species of Velociraptor (Dinosauria: Dromaeosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of northern China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28 (2): 432–438. [1]
3. ↑ Milner, Angela 2002. Dinobirds: from dinosaurs to birds. Natural History Museum, London.
4. ↑ Gee, Henry 2000. Deep time: cladistics, the revolution in evolution. Fourth Estate, London. Chapter 6 "The being and becoming of birds" is about the origin of birds.
5. ↑ Benton M.J. et al. 2008. The remarkable fossils from the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota of China and how they have changed our knowledge of Mesozoic life. Proceedings of the Geological Association 119, p209–228.
6. ↑ Dong Zhiming 1988. Dinosaurs from China. transl. Angela Milner, BM(NH)/China Ocean.