Happy Velociraptor Awareness Day! (April 18)

Instructions

Happy Velociraptor Awareness day! Today I will remind you for the 6852715367123576135761257th time that velociraptors were feathered. A lot of people know about velociraptors, but many may not know or appreciate the real animal for what it really was... Quick facts about velociraptor: - Velociraptor's name means "Swift Thief", and comes from the words "Velocitas" (meaning swift, quick, etc.) and "Raptor" (meaning, thief, robber, etc.), both from Latin. - Velociraptor lived in the Djadochta Formation of the Gobi Desert (Central Asia) in the Late Cretaceous (the last period of the Mesozoic Era). It evolved approximately 89.8 millions years ago and went extinct about 72.1 million years ago. - Velociraptor was a dromaeosaur (or raptor). This group of theropods (group of two-legged ancestral meat eaters which also contains birds and t.rex) is a group a feathered dinosaurs closely related to birds. - Velociraptor and other dromaeosaurs were fully feathered, meaning that they were covered almost fully with feathers. They also had pennaceous (branching feathers) on their wings (up to the second digit; including the primaries) and tails. This is backed with direct scientific evidence from the quill knobs (knobs which feathers attach to) fossilized on the arms of velociraptor. - Velociraptor and other dinosaurs didn't, and couldn't pronate their hands, or hold them in a downward position, like that of the Jurassic Park/World raptors. Instead, dinosaurs held their arms in a "clapping" position. - Real life velociraptors were only about 2 meters (around 6 feet) long, and small compared to a human, not 6 feet tall, unlike the "velociraptors" in Jurassic Park/World. - Velociraptor and other dromaeosaurs likely did not hunt in coordinated packs, as there is not enough evidence from the fossil record to support coordinated pack hunting. They might have, however, hunted in chaotic "mobs" to bring down larger prey. - Velociraptor and other dromaeosaurs did not hunt by running, jumping, and kicking to disembowel and slash their prey to death. Instead, they might have used "Raptor Prey Restraint", something modern raptors also do. They do that by jumping on their prey to restrain them (while hooking in and balancing with claws and by flapping their wings). Then, they finish their prey or begin to feed on them alive.