Historical Saturday #3- Jurassic World's Velociraptors: Fakes?!

The Truth of VELOCIRAPTORS

Welcome back again, followers, to another Historical Saturday post. I hope you all have recovered from last week's scary post about torture. Moving away from that, today, we are going to take a look at the Velociraptor in the late Cretaceous period.

I’m sure most of us have seen the new movie, Jurassic World, which just annihilated box offices records. So I’m pretty confident that you guys know about the Velociraptors, but don’t worry, there are no spoilers!

If you have watched all four Jurassic Park/ World movies, you would notice that the Velociraptor is an iconic dinosaur in each movie, besides the well renowned T- Rex. Many viewers believed that the actual real life Velociraptor looked like it.  Well, if you believed that, it is time to learn the truth about the actual raptor.

I hope the directors of the next Jurassic Park/World movie reads this, including the main actor Chris Pratt. Plus, movie directors and design teams, please know your stuff!!

(Jurassic Park’s Velociraptor)     (An actual remedy of a Velociraptor)

Fact 1- Velociraptors were Small

For a dinosaur, which was, suppose to be a ferocious dinosaur in the movies and the meaning of its name, it’s quite small. Velociraptors were actually the size of a modern day turkey. The average weight of this small dinosaur was around 13 kg, and its height was around 3 feet max (An average height of a human toddler)

Fact 2- The raptors in the movies aren’t really Velociraptors

This is the most unfortunate truth about the Velociraptors in the movies. Though there was a similar dinosaur like it, and it was called the Deinonychus. The moviemakers took most of the features of that dinosaur and replaced its skin from feathers, to reptilian skin. They probably did this, because the name was not of a real catch to it.

Fact 3- Velociraptors aren’t all that smart

( Thats not in the script!!!)
I’m sure for the people who watched the first Jurassic Park, we remember the scene where the Velociraptor turned the kitchen doorknob? Well even the smartest dinosaur, called the Troodon, was dumber than a newborn kitten. So it is said that a real Velociraptor would have banged on to the door until it is knocked out.

Fact 4- Velociraptors do not live up to their name

( Don't look at me like that)

Though as the name of the Velociraptors implies the meaning of Speedy thief, it is not as fast as it sounds. Sadly, even the fastest Velociraptor could be out run by an athletic human child, plus the short turkey legs do not help.

Fact 5- Velociraptors live in Central Asia



 Many people today have mistaken the Velociraptor to live in Central America from the movies, but that is wrong, they lived in Central Asia. Though the Velociraptors cousin, Deinonychus, a much more deadly type of its kind lived in America.

Fact 6- Velociraptors did not hunt in packs



( Note to self, these aren't Velociraptors)

As Hollywood suggests that these creatures hunted in packs, they are wrong indeed. The actual fact is that there is no evidence of any Velociraptor to have hunted in groups. However, as many times mentioned the Deinonychus would cooperate with each other to take down bigger dinosaurs.

Fact 7- What did Velociraptors eat?



(Remains of a Protoceratops and Velociraptor)
Since Velociraptors aren’t big, they don’t hunt in packs, and to make matters worse they don’t have a lot of speed. So what can they eat or feast on? Well, they hunt for other smaller dinosaurs, such as the Protoceratops, which were like pig-liked dinosaurs.

Well in conclusion these guys aren’t so tough as the movie depicts them to be. Though I sure don’t want to be with their larger cousins, plus they would make a pretty scary bird if it were still alive. Goodness, imagine if they could fly? I wonder what would happen?

Well thanks for reading if you have, sorry for the short article. As a token of apology I bring you some photos of these cute animals.