Velociraptor

## Nemegt VelociraptorineIndeterminate Species

* Adults
* Juveniles

* Nemegt Formation, Gobi Desert, Mongolia (Indeterminate velociraptorine remains)

### Temporal Range

75 - 71 million years ago, Campanian Stage, Late Cretaceous Period (possibly around up to 70 million years ago, Maastrichtian Stage)

### Episodes

* Deserts (Segment 2)
* Freshwater (Segment 1)
* Badlands (Segment 2)
* Did *Velociraptor* Have Feathers?

## Characteristics

### Diet

Carnivore

* **Skull Length** of 23 centimeters (9.1 inches)
* **Sickle Claw Length** of 6.6 centimeters (2.6 inches)

 **Main** Segments Gallery

MainSegmentsGallery

***“ There is safety in numbers, and anyway, few land-living hunters venture here... but one does. A type of dinosaur, Velociraptor. Their bodies are kept warm by feathers, but they can't fly. They are, however, exceptionally agile, and just as well. One false step here could bring disaster. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Freshwater*
***Velociraptor*** (Swift Thief) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in Central Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period. It is one of the most well-known dinosaurs to have ever walked the Earth. However, it is unknown if the animal presented on Prehistoric Planet is actually *Velociraptor* itself, though it is still possible that it will turn out to be so once identified and thoroughly described in the future. For simplicity, the show simply refers to it as *Velociraptor*.

Both known species of *Velociraptor*, *V. mongoliensis* and *V. osmolskae* lived 75 - 71 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. *V. mongoliensis*, the more known species, was found in the Djadochta Formation, set in what would become the modern-day Gobi Desert in Mongolia, while *V. osmolskae* was found in the nearby Bayan Mandahu Formation in Inner Mongolia, China. Of note, however, is that the animal seen in Prehistoric Planet isn't confirmed to be *Velociraptor*, rather, it is a species of indeterminate velociraptorine found in some areas of east Asia, referred to as "*Velociraptor*" for simplicity's sake. It is possible that this unidentified animal may indeed be a new species of *Velociraptor*, however, and if that is the case, it would indicate *Velociraptor's* presence in the Nemegt Formation, 70 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.

## Paleobiology

### Size and Physique

*Velociraptor* is a medium-sized dromaeosaur that was smaller than a turkey, reaching around 2.1 meters (7 feet) in length and up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in weight. It can be distinguished from other dromaeosaurs by its long, low skull (23 centimeters/9.1 inches in length), and upturned snout. As with all dromaeosaurs, *Velociraptor* is equipped with a sickle-shaped claw (in their case, 6.6 centimeters/2.6 inches long) on the second toe of each foot, fit for grappling and restraining prey. However, while perfect for puncturing flesh, tests showed that they were not meant to tear and disembowel prey as was once believed.

### Feathers

***“ Lightweight bodies and feathered arms help them to control their descent, and their broad tails assist them in keeping their balance. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Freshwater*
As indicated by quill knobs on its arms and evidence of feathers in other dromaeosaurs, it is now strongly accepted that *Velociraptor* was fully-feathered. The Freshwater episode depicts their lightweight bodies and feathered arms and tails being used to balance and control their descent, which helps when navigating high, precarious cliffsides. The feathers may also serve as a means to cushion them (the female *Velociraptor* in Freshwater fell from quite a height twice, not on her feet, also scraping her body against the rough cliff walls in the process, and was still fine), and, given how the feathers were stated to keep them warm, they may also work both ways as an insulator and thus serve as a means to keep them cool against the heat of the desert.

### Prehistoric Planet's Depiction

*Main: "*Velociraptor*" on Prehistoric Planet*

Main: "*Velociraptor*" on Prehistoric Planet

Prehistoric Planet depicts the *Velociraptors* with a full coat of feathers, black patches around the eyes, exposed, bare, leathery skin (with some keratinized areas) on their snouts, fingers, and legs, and undersides lighter in color compared to the rest of the body, giving them a degree of countershading (which many animals, predator and prey alike, use to enhance their camouflage depending on the light and angle at which they are viewed). The females having a white or gray coat (though one female in *Badlands* appears to have a black coat), with thick, white lines that run from their eyebrows down to their necks and across the midline of their bodies, separating the top from the lighter-colored undersides. The males have reddish integument, thinner white lines that only cover their eyebrows, and a band around their necks that is a lighter shade of red. The juveniles are dirty white, with a tone resembling that of desert sand, with black strikes and speckles to help camouflage them.

*Velociraptor* first appears in the second segment of Deserts, hunting lizards running around a sleeping family of *Tarbosaurus*, accidentally waking one of the tyrannosaurs up while pursuing a lizard. The species next appeared in the first segment of Freshwater, where two males and one female scale a cliffside waterfall to hunt juvenile azhdarchids. A family of *Velociraptors* are shown in a maze of canyons in Badlands, where, taking advantage of the panic caused by a trio of *Tarbosaurus*, the dromaeosaurs hunt some *Prenocephale* to provide food for their hatchlings. *Velociraptor* also serves as the focus of the Prehistoric Planet: Uncovered segment "Did *Velociraptor* Have Feathers?", which discusses the several advantages their feathery coats provide.

## Paleoecology

### Paleoenvironment

*Main: Nemegt Formation*

Main: Nemegt Formation

***“ The badlands of the Prehistoric Planet tests even dinosaurs to their limits. This strange landscape, carved by scouring winds and vast, ancient rivers might appear empty of life. But here in Asia, hidden in these narrow canyons, is a new family of Velociraptors. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Badlands*
*Velociraptor* lived 75 - 71 million years ago in Central Asia. *V. mongoliensis* lived in the Djadochta Formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, while *V. osmolskae* lived in the nearby Bayan Mandahu Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. Both areas were known to have been deserts during the time of *Velociraptor*, just as presented on Prehistoric Planet.

However, the show is technically showing an indeterminate velociraptorine found in Maastrichtian sites within Central Asia, with the implication being that it lived in the Nemegt Formation that succeeded the Djadochta Formation. The Nemegt Formation is known for its rich, humid environment full of large river channels, tidal flats, and forests (which corresponds with the waterfall cliffs the *Velociraptors* were scaling in Freshwater). However, the area is also known to have undergone periodic droughts, and there is precedence for arid regions much like the Gobi Desert today existing in Mongolia during those times, thus justifying the depiction of this indeterminate velociraptorine living in or at least traveling through a vast desert environment.

### Hunting Tactics and Feeding Preferences

Given its small size, *Velociraptor* would not have hunted big animals like fully-grown hadrosaurs, contrary to what has been shown in popular culture and media. However, it is still a vicious predator in its own right. While usually recognized as a predator of pig-sized animals like *Protoceratops* (especially following the discovery of the "Fighting Dinosaurs" fossil, which shows a *Velociraptor* and a *Protoceratops* that were presumably buried by sand while fighting each other), *Velociraptor* would have also gone after less-risky prey like lizards, mammals, and, as seen on the show, pterosaurs, with an azhdarchid long bone in a *Velociraptor's* stomach serving as direct evidence that they at least scavenged the carcasses of azhdarchid pterosaurs in their area.

### Social Habits

***“ A Velociraptor. Time to be careful, because Velociraptors often hunt... together. ”***

― **David Attenborough**, *Deserts*
While *Velociraptors* are often portrayed in popular culture as working in tightly-knit packs akin to wolves, it was more likely that *Velociraptors* temporarily hunted together in loose packs, engaging in situational pack-hunting similar to that of coyotes and modern birds of prey (which, as members of the Paraves clade, are technically dinosaurs and therefore modern-day relatives of dromaeosaurs like *Velociraptor*). Evidence of dromaeosaurs living (or at least moving) together comes in the form of a trackway discovered in Shandong, China in 2007, footprints left behind by six *Achillobator*-sized dromaeosaurs traveling together down a shoreline (though it is also possible that these tracks were left by separate individuals that just so happened to travel down the same path at different times). Current ideas suggest that, when hunting as pack, they would converge on their prey, mobbing it much like Komodo Dragons do today, before going their separate ways. In Freshwater, three *Velociraptors* are shown grouping up to hunt pterosaurs, but they still prefer to attack individually, secure their own prey, and depart once they got what they needed.

As demonstrated by fossilized evidence of their interactions with *Protoceratops*, *Velociraptors* were capable of hunting alone when going after prey their own size, which is seen to a degree in Deserts. While the *Velociraptors* were stated to "often hunt together", prowling in the same area for the same lizards to feed on, they weren't really planning out coordinated strategies, and were more or less just hunting for their own individual meals at the same time. However, in Badlands, justified pack-hunting behavior is depicted in the form of a pair raising hatchlings together, with a female *Velociraptor* chasing a *Prenocephale* up a ledge where her mate can ambush the target and kick it off the cliff to its demise, securing a meal for both of them and their chicks.

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## Trivia

### Speculation

* There is the belief that the indeterminate velociraptorine of Prehistoric Planet may be *Adasaurus* (Evil Lizard), a close relative (and perhaps even descendant) of *Velociraptor* that did live in the Nemegt Formation.
	+ However, it should be noted that *Adasaurus* is noticeably bigger (around the size of *Deinonychus*) and more robust than *Velociraptor*. Conversely, its sickle toe claws are highly reduced, smaller and blunter compared to the prominent ones of *Velociraptor*, indicating that *Adasaurus* did not use its sickle toe claws as much as other dromaeosaurs.

### Other

* *Velociraptor* is one of the two animals that appeared in multiple segments shown hunting in all the segments it was featured in. It hunted and ate a lizard in the second segment of Deserts, ran off with a juvenile azhdarchid to eat it offscreen by the end of the first segment of Freshwater, and engaged in cooperative behavior to hunt down a *Prenocephale* in the second segment of Badlands. The other is the Alaskan tyrannosaur *Nanuqsaurus*, which hunted *Pachyrhinosaurus* in the sixth segment of Ice Worlds and *Ornithomimus* in the fifth segment of North America. Close contenders include:
	+ *Hatzegopteryx*, which ate a juvenile *Zalmoxes* in the seventh segment of Forests and a juvenile *Tethyshadros* in the second segment of Islands, though in its third appearance, it only used a juvenile *Tethyshadros* as a reusable proof of strength, with neither the male nor the female he mated with actually consuming it by the end of the sixth segment of Islands).
	+ If looking for a dead body to scavenge is counted, *Tyrannosaurus rex* (which ate a dead turtle in the first segment of Coasts, ate a *Triceratops* it killed offscreen in the second segment of Freshwater, hunted an *Edmontosaurus* at night in the fifth segment of Swamps, and scavenged a newly-deceased *Alamosaurus* in the first segment of North America).

## References

### General

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A Basal Dromaeosaurid and Size Evolution Preceding Avian Flight
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The accuracy and precision of body mass estimation in non-avian dinosaurs
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The skull of *Velociraptor* (Theropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Important features of the dromaeosaurid skeleton II: information from newly collected specimens of *Velociraptor mongoliensis*
5. ↑ Holtz, Thomas (@TomHoltzPaleo) (May 25, 2022) on Twitter, regarding the possibility that the indeterminate velociraptorine is indeed a new species of *Velociraptor*
6. ↑ Dinosaur killer claws or climbing crampons?
7. ↑ Pterosaurs as a food source for small dromaeosaurs
8. ↑ Behavioral and faunal implications of Early Cretaceous deinonychosaur trackways from China

### Dr. Darren Naish

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The *Velociraptors* in Deserts are based on indeterminate velociraptorine remains, though it is possible that these may indeed be *Velociraptors*.
2. ↑ The animals in Freshwater are not specifically *Velociraptors*, but the show cannot refer to them "indeterminate velociraptorines".
3. ↑ Excellent evidence, from complete skeletons in China to quill knobs on the forelimbs of *Velociraptor*, make it clear that these animals were fully feathered, much like birds today.