Velociraptor
or
Deinonychus
? Did the
Jurassic Park
Movie
Get its Dinosaurs Mixed Up?
by Zale Thoronka, age 12
Did you know the movie
Jurassic Park
probably featured
Deinonychus
dinosaurs instead of
Velociraptors
?
The
Deinonychus
dinosaur was not the first raptor-like dinosaur to be found, but it is one of the largest at 10 feet long. It had three claws on each hand and four toes on each foot. There was one small toe, one extra-big toe, and one normal-sized toe, which it stood on. The fourth toe was used to kill, and it worked like the blade of a can opener. In addition, the
Deinonychus
had sharp, serrated teeth, long limbs, and a huge tail.
Deinonychus
had a relatively large brain, so it was intelligent. It was fast and strong on its feet. Like an acrobat, it could jump very high and perhaps twist mid-air. And the
Deinonychus
could use its sharp claws as hooks to climb up the bodies of its prey.
Scientists believe they lived and hunted in packs because more
Deinonychus
could take down bigger prey, much like modern-day wolves. Once it found its prey, the
Deinonychus
would kill it by making long, deep cuts in its flesh before eating it.
At 10 feet long, only a
Deinonychus
dinosaur would have been big enough to stalk the protagonists of the
Jurassic Park
film.
Velociraptors
were actually only about as big as a modern wild turkey! And there is one more thing the movie got wrong. Both
Velociraptor
and
Deinonychus
dinosaurs were covered in feathers!
[Sources:
A Guide to Dinosaurs
;
Smithsonian Magazine
]