Velociraptor was a small, agile and slender dinosaur with up-curved skulls and large sickle claws. They had strong jaws with rows of bladed teeth. These, in combination with very big claws on their hands and on one of their toes (the size of these claws could reach up to the length of the teeth on extinct sabertooth tigers) gave these some some impressive weaponry.

The name Velociraptor is well-known from the movie Jurassic Park, but the dinosaurs portrayed there were actually modelled after a larger relative, Deinonychus. It is from this movie that the velociraptor became popularly known as the raptor.

Velociraptor mongoliensis (Osborn, 1924)

  • Skull length : 249 mm.
  • Total length : 2.7 m.
  • Hip height : 0.5 m.
  • Weight : 15 kilograms