ExtinctZoo - The Dinosaur That Movies Always Get Wrong

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Velociraptors = Human-sized scaly reptiles that lived with T. rex right? WRONG! They were tiny! And lived in…wait for it…MONGOLIA! Who would’ve thought?

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Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. The Mesozoic, also known as the Age of the Dinosaurs, saw the rise of many legendary animal families, the names of which are known throughout the world today. Most of these groups became infamous thanks to their large sizes and toughness. with the most prominent ones being the Tyrannosaurs, titanosaurs, and spinosaurids. However, there is one family of dinosaurs that have become just as renowned as these mentioned groups, despite being relatively tiny in stature. These are the Dramasors, or more commonly known as the raptors.

This was a family of feathered celiosaurian theropod dinosaurs that thrive from the middle Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. They became exceptionally successful and eventually well known, not because of their sizes, but their sleek yet deadly builds, which also sported an iconic weapon that remains unique amongst most animals. Many of its members have also become prominent in their own regards and have contributed much to paleontology and mainstream media. Yet, one specific dromaeosaur always seems to stand above all others

in terms of both popularity and infamy. The Velociraptor. This raptor is often believed to have coexisted alongside the T-Rex in North America, mainly due to its appearance together in Jurassic Park, although in reality the two never met, as the Velociraptor was millions of years older and didn't even live in the same place, with its remains being discovered not North America but in Mongolia in 1923. The original skeleton found consisted of a crushed but complete skull,

and a toeclaw within the Jadokta formation of the Gobi Desert. The paleontologists who unearthed the skeleton recognized it to be a small new theropod, but at first thought it belonged to the Megalosauridae family, due to its incomplete remains. And it wasn't until more specimens were found that it was reassigned to the Dromasaur family, as it possessed the hallmark features of raptors, which included a short T-shaped frontal, a lateral process of the quadrate, and a modified second pedal digit. Along with its reclassification, it was also given a name which would one day prove monumental for its legacy, Velociraptor Mongoliances, meaning Mongolia

Swift Plunderer, which was inspired by its slender, agile build, and carnivorous diet. And almost 66 million years later, this name would have great impacts on the dinosaur world itself, as it was then that Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, decided to use the name Velociraptor instead of Dino-Nicus for his raptors, as he found the name to be more dramatic. This decision ultimately propelled the Velociraptor to international stardom, and made it one of the most well-known extinct animals of all time. But this new fame also had unintended consequences,

as much of the Velociraptors in the book and the subsequent movie were based on the larger dino-nichus, resulting in the common misconception that the Velociraptor was rather large, with it being 6 feet or 1.8 meters tall and 9 feet or 2.7 meters long in Jurassic Park. In reality, the Velociraptor was much smaller in life, with adults measuring between 1.5 and 2.07 meters, or 4.9 and 6.8 feet in length, while standing just 0.5 meters or 1.6 feet tall at the hips. Additionally, it weighed a maximum of 19.7 kilograms or 43 pounds, making it nearly 8 times smaller than the movie Raptors

and 180 times lighter than the average dinosaur. And while the small size may come across as a major disadvantage for the Velociraptor, it actually provided it with some exceptionally useful traits, one of which was its speed. The Velociraptor's bones were light and slender, while also being relatively strong, with the leg bones being especially durable. And within the leg itself, the shin bone had been extensively lengthened, allowing it to take long strides through the desert and inhabited, implying that Velociraptor was capable of a fast running speed, with most paleontologists

believing it ran in short bursts, where it might have reached 64 kilometers or 40 miles per hour, making it faster than professional cyclists. On top of having specialized legs, the Velociraptor also had other adaptations that increased its swiftness and agility, including a stiffened and fused elongated tail, which helped to maintain balance while running at higher speeds or when tussling around.

The current thought is that the speed and mobility was mainly used to hunt down a variety of smaller size prey, some of which were also quite speedy themselves. And even though the Velocraptor didn't have immense power or size to help it kill an animal once it caught it, it did not just have one or even two weapons, but rather three very deadly specialized weapons that did the job. The first one being its mouth. Its mouth was quite long in relation to the rest of its body, and possessed an array of short but sharp teeth that were razor thin, recurved, and heavily serrated, with the serrations being stronger on the backside than the same.

the front, making them great for not only tearing meat apart, but also for gripping onto prey. Additionally, studies have found that the bite force was around 304 newtons, making it similar to the bite of a Belgian shepherd. Wireless is impressive for its size, and would have easily let the Velociraptor penetrate flesh with its teeth, it wasn't enough to be the main killing mechanism for prey similar to its own size, as its jaw was still relatively narrow and fragile. Instead, paleontologists think that its mouth was reserved solely for eating already deceased prey, or for very small, fast animals like lizards and amphibians that it could have eaten whole.

And for these critters, its long-nated snout would have actually been very handy, as it was designed precisely to snatch up these small animals at high speeds, acting kind of like a spear. However, this still leaves the question of how the Velociraptor was able to take down larger prey, despite its smaller size. And the answer comes from its most iconic feature and deadliest weapon, its sickles-shaped toe claw. Overall, the Velocraptor possessed four digits and claws on each foot, with the first one being vestigial and the third and fourth, both being larger but of normal length.

However, its second digit was a different story, as it was proportionally giant, sometimes measuring 6.5 centimeters or 2.6 inches, making it about 10,000. percent of the height of a Velociraptor's entire body. This is the equivalent to humans having built in 8 inch or 20 centimeter knives. And along with being exceedingly lengthy, the raptor's sickle-shaped claw was curved, sharpened, and retracted, meaning it didn't touch the ground, which was in order to preserve its integrity leading to the Velociraptor being quite unique. As unlike most other theropods, it only walked on its third and fourth digits.

And despite this being rather odd, the walking style paid off as it maintained the quality of the claw, allowing it to be used with extreme effectiveness during hunts. However, even though paleontologists knew that the Velociraptor used these enlarged claws as their main weapons, they were not exactly sure how they used them. One prominent idea was that they utilized them by slashing and disemboweling prey, leading to a rather gruesome and painful death. This hypothesis was further propelled in mainstream media by Jurassic Park, where in the first movie Ian Grant showcases how a Velociraptor would dispatch a somewhat rude kid.

Although a one-of-a-kind discovery would eventually disrupt this disembalment hypothesis, as in the depths of the Gobi Desert, a Velociraptor specimen was unearthed alongside a proto-seratops. The two appear to be locked in intense combat, with the battle being a result of a predation attempt by the Velociraptor, granting paleontologists a rare insight into exactly how this dromaeosaur used its sickle claw. What they found quite surprised them, as the raptor was on the underside of the protoceratops body, where it was not slashing the abdomen open, but was rather using its claw to stab and penetrate the victim's neck.

They further noticed that the inside edge of the claw wasn't as sharp as they thought it would be, and only the tip was razor sharp. This led to the realization that the Velociraptor actually killed prey by piercing vital organs and areas, such as the jugular vein, carotid artery, or trachea, incurring either massive blood loss or in the latter area, suffocation. This rare specimen also proved beyond doubt that this tactic was largely foolproof, as analysis of the proto-seratops revealed that the claw had successfully caused enough damage to have induced a fatal amount of blood loss. which resulted in the proto-serotops biting the Velociraptor's hand as a last hurrah, so to speak. In addition to exhibiting how its sickle claw was used in combat,

the fighting dinosaurs also highlighted another part of the Velociraptor's arsenal, that isn't talked about nearly as much, its hand claws. Velociraptors, like other dromaeosaurs, had a proportionally large manus, and three fingers, which curved towards the end forming claw bones, which were similar in flexibility and structure to the wings of modern birds. These claws were also similar to its own foot claws, in that the second digit was the longest and the first being the shortest. It's thought that these claws would have been used both to slash and grass prey,

which was demonstrated by the Velocraptor specimen, as its free hand was firmly holding the head of the protoceratops. With this feature, it would have been able to anchor itself to any prey, and thus allowing its sickle claw to be let loose with catastrophic effects. It's clear that this raptor was an efficient active hunter that could tackle a diverse range of prey in terms of size, but it was ultimately an opportunistic feeder, meaning that if the chance arose, it would still by all means scavenge a carcass.

And evidence backs this, as multiple dinosaur bones have been located with Velociraptor bite marks on body parts associated with scavenging. such at the top of the head of a proto-seratops, where there isn't much meat, indicating that the body was gone by the time the Velociraptor arrived. It's believed that the Velociraptor would switch to or increased its level of scavenging during harsh dry seasons or when in poor health and old age. This ability to smoothly transition between scavenging and actively hunting was pivotal in the Velociraptor's success. But it wasn't its only unique advantage, as this Dromasaur also had excellent hearing, which further assisted it. Studies on its endocrineum found that it could hear a wide range of frequencies, specifically

between 2,368 Hz and 3,965 Hertz. This meant that the Velociraptor could easily track down prey by sound alone, with many probably being taken by extreme surprise, as the Velociraptor may have been an octoberer. hunter who use the cover of darkness to strike. This is a possibility since comparison between its scleral rings and those of modern birds, reptiles, and other dinosaurs suggest a nocturnal lifestyle. This added yet another problem that other dinosaurs had to deal with when facing this raptor. However, one thing they didn't likely have to worry about was numbers.

As despite Jurassic Park betraying the Velociraptor as a pack hunter, there is actually little evidence that indicates that it was a social creature in life. And thus far, no individuals have been found in close association with each other. And another area where Jurassic Park got the Velociraptors wrong was its feathers. In its fictional adaptation, the raptors possessed no feathers. And yet, in real life, the Velociraptor was adorned with feathers across its entire body. Paleontologists believe this to be the case, since numerous Dramasauri, like Darlong or Microraptor were found with preserved feathers, with many other

dromaeosaurs showing indirect evidence as well. Furthermore, an arm bone belonging to a matured velociraptor had over 10 quill knobs, which heavily implies that the Velocirpter was feathered, with its arm and tail possessing larger and longer feathers than the rest of its body. Though because it was flightless, paleontologists are not 100% sure what the the Velociraptor used its feathers for. But the leading idea are that they helped in either covering their nests while brooding, elevating speed and thrust when running up inclined slopes, social display for other Velociraptors, or a mixture of all three.

This being said, if it was used for social reasons, it definitely didn't do much to keep the peace, as the Velociraptor was highly aggressive to others of its own kind. And throughout the years, multiple specimens have been found with extensive damage demonstrating the brutal nature of these raptor fights. One specific individual had small yet severe bite marks to its frontal bones, which came from a Velociraptor and also showed signs of infection and no healing, meaning the raptor did not survive the ordeal. Other individuals have further shown that these fights would also lead to fractures,

notably rib fractures, which could cause internal organ damage and suggested that these fights often ended up on the ground with the Velociraptor's thrashing about. It is believed that these fights were typically over a lack of resources, as the Velociraptor lived in a very cutthroat environment that could get extremely harsh. Specifically, fossil locations have shown a distribution throughout the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, and China during the late Cretaceous,

from 75 to 71 million years ago. During this time, the Gobi Desert was very deep. different than it is today, with the main difference being that it was much warmer and more humid. Sediment deposits illustrate that this habitat was semi-arid in nature and was peppered with vast sand dunes, while streams on the other hand were very minimal and sparse. Along with the climate being different than today, the Gobi Desert of those times was also unrecognizable in terms of life that inhabited it, with numerous dinosaurs and

other extinct reptiles calling it home. This includes the likes of the protoceratops, Saro Ornithoids, Arnithoids, Prinosaphalae, Ovoraptor, Cidipati, Khan, Avamimis, Mahakala, Halscaraptorapter, Pletho's, Sagan, Udanoceratops, Bajonocerotops, Bynoceratops, Pinoceros, Minotaurosaurus, Shuvuia, Cole, Makairosaurus, Papylovenator, an undescribed Tyrannosaur and Sarapod, gobiates, gobiosuchus, shamosucas, carusus, astesia, cherminotis, gobi-derma, Ovo, Slavioia, telmosaurus, stylusis, gobi-taryx, gobirics, gobi-terix, Elsornis, Absaravis, turtles, and asdarkids.

Non-reptilians also called these deserts home, including mammals such as Asiotherium, Bulgan Batar, Catops Batar, Delta Theridium, Hyothoridium, Camptobatar, Canalesstis, Cryptobatar, Tom Batar, Sloan-Batar, and Zalam Deliste's. As you can see, the home of the Velociraptor was truly diverse, and it was here that it roamed and thrived for millions of years. However, despite its truly efficient build, the Velocirpter was eventually lost to the deserts of the gobi, and vanished before the asteroid impact ever ended the non-avian dinosaurs. Currently, no one has any clear idea of what happened to it. Besides some speculating it evolved into another Dromasaur, perhaps the Adasaur.

perhaps the Adasaurus. Whatever the case, even though it may be gone forever, it still lives on thanks to its monumental legacy. Thanks for watching, and until next time on... Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming,

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