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home > art > paleo-art > paraves {pterosauria}{oviraptorosauria}{paraves}{misc. dinosauria} Velociraptor mongoliensis If Deinonychus was a dinosaurian wolf, then it's Asian cousin, the 6ft long Velociraptor was a Cretaceous fox. Known from the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, Velociraptor lived along side (and probably hunted) other flightless birds like Mononykus, Shuvuuia, and the various species of oviraptorid that nested in its environment, as well as the small horned dinosaur Protoceratops (evidence for this comes from the famous "fighting dinosaurs" specimen of a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops locked in combat). Like other dromaeosaurids, it's probable that Velociraptor had long primary feathers. In it's smaller relatives, these feathers are thought to have aided in gliding through trees. Being a desert animal, Velociraptor may have used its wings to engage in a behavior known as 'vertical running' up sand dunes, or gliding from dune to dune in pursuit of prey. Deinonychosaurs were slow and probably ambush predators, but in an environment like the Gobi Desert there isn't much cover for surprise attacks, and any techniques, like gliding, would be a useful advantage for an otherwise slow moving predator. Unlike the relatively huge, reptillian "raptors" depicted in Jurassic Park, Velociraptor were small (2 m or 6 ft long, about 2.5 to 3ft tall) flightless birds, descended from flying, Archaeopteryx-like ancestors. Many of these primitive dromaeosaurs, like Microraptor, Cryptovolans, Pedopenna, and Archeopteryx istelf, had long feathers on the legs, adapted into full-fledged hind wings in some species. I've reconstructed the leg feathers of Velociraptor conservatively, similar to those found in Archaeopteryx, since it was a primarily ground-dwelling bird and long feahters may have gotten in the way of running. For more on Velociraptor, see the Wikipedia article I helped edit. |
Peelback © Matt Martyniuk 2006