Birds of prey — small to medium-sized feathered dinosaurs equipped with single, long, curved hind paws on their hind feet — were among the most feared predators of the Mesozoic era. In the slide below, you will find pictures and details of more than 25 birds of prey, ranging from A (Achillobator) to Z (Zhen Yuanlong).
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Aquilobaatar
Matt Martyniuk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.5
Aquiriobato is named after a hero from Greek mythology (its name is actually a combination of Greek and Mongolian, "Achilles warrior"). Little is known about this Central Asian bird of prey, and its bizarre rump makes it slightly different from other similar birds of prey.
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Adalong
Karkemish/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0
name
Ada Dragon (Greek for "Ada Lizard"); Pronounced AY-dah-sore-us
habitat
Central Asian woodlands
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (75-65 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 5 feet long and weighs 50-75 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
high skull; short claws of the hind foot; Possible feathers
Adasaurus (named after the evil spirits of Mongolian mythology) is one of the more humble birds of prey unearthed in Central Asia, far less famous than its modern velociraptors. Judging by its limited fossil remains, Adasaurus has an unusually tall skull (which doesn't necessarily mean it's smarter than its peers), and its single oversized claws on each hindfoot are very small compared to Deinonychus or Achillobator. About the size of a large turkey, Adasaurus preyed on small dinosaurs and other animals from Late Cretaceous Central Asia.
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Atrosiraptor
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Atrociraptor (Greek for "cruel thief"); Pronounced ah-TROSS-ih-rap-tore
habitat
North American woodlands
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (70 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs 20 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; Short snout, teeth curved back
Surprisingly, just one name can color our view of long-extinct dinosaurs. For all intents and purposes, Atrociraptor is very similar to Bambiraptor – both are small, albeit dangerous, with raptors with sharp teeth and torn hind paws – but from their names, you might want to stroke the latter and escape the former. In any case, Atrociraptor's size is certainly deadly, as evidenced by its crooked teeth backwards – the only conceivable function is to tear off jagged pieces of flesh (and prevent live prey from escaping).
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Australopeur
ESV/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Austrian raptor (Greek for "thief of the South"); Pronounced AW-stroh-rap-tore
habitat
Woodlands of South America
Historical period
Late Cretaceous (700,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 16 feet long and weighs 500 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Large size; narrow nose; Short arms
As with all types of dinosaurs, paleontologists are constantly digging for new birds of prey. The most recent addition to the group is Austroraptor, which was "diagnosed" in 2008 based on a skeleton dug up in Argentina (hence "austro", meaning "south", in its name). To date, australopithes is the largest bird of prey ever found in South America, growing 16 feet from head to tail and possibly weighing around 500 pounds — a ratio that would have made its North American cousin, Deinonychus, run for its money, but that would have put it on par with the nearly one-ton Utah raptor that lived tens of millions of years ago.
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Barauer
Jaime Headden/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0
name
Balaur ("dragon" in Romanian); Pronounced Balor
habitat
Eastern European woodlands
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (700,000-650,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs 25 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
muscular; Hind foot double paws
Its full name, Balaur bondoc, sounds like a supervillain from a James Bond movie, but if anything, this dinosaur is even more interesting: a late Cretaceous bird of prey that inhabited the island with many strange anatomical features. First, unlike other birds of prey, Balaur has two oversized curved claws on its hind feet instead of one; Second, this predator cuts an unusually squat, muscular silhouette, very different from light, fast cousins like velociraptors and Deinonychus. In fact, Balaur has such a low center of gravity that it might be able to handle larger dinosaurs (especially if it hunts in groups).
Why does Barauer occupy such a far position outside the Raptor norm? Well, the dinosaur seems to be confined to an island environment that can produce some strange evolutionary results — look at the "pygmy" titanosaurus Magyarosaurus, which weighs only a ton or so, and the relatively shrimp duckbill dinosaur Telmatosaurus. Apparently, Balaur's anatomy was characterized by adaptations of flora and fauna with limited habitat on its islands, a dinosaur that evolved in strange directions due to millions of years of isolation.
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Bambiraptor
Ballista/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
Its warm, fuzzy name is reminiscent of gentle, furry forest creatures, but the truth is that Bambiraptor is just as vicious as a bulldog — and its fossils provide valuable clues to the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds.
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Buitre raptor
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Buitreraptor (Spanish/Greek combination for "vulture thief"); PRONOUNCED BWEE-TRAY-RAP-TORE
habitat
South American plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (900,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 4 feet long and weighs 25 pounds
diet
Small animals
Distinctive features
long, narrow nose; smooth teeth; Probably feathers
Buiteraptor, the third bird of prey found in South America, is on the small side and has no serrations on its teeth, suggesting it feeds on much smaller animals rather than tearing the flesh of its dinosaur companions. Like other birds of prey, paleontologists reconstructed the Buitreraptor to be covered with feathers, implying its close evolutionary relationship with modern birds. (By the way, the dinosaur's strange name stems from the fact that it was unearthed in 2005 in the Labuitrera region of Patagonia – a nickname that seems fitting, since Buitrera means "vulture" in Spanish!)
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Changyula Dragon
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
name
Chanjuron (Greek for "Thief of Changyu"); PRONOUNCED CHANG-YOO-RAP-TORE
habitat
Asian woodlands
Historical period
Early Cretaceous period (125 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs 10 pounds
diet
Small animals
Distinctive features
four wings; Long feathers
As is often the case when discovering new dinosaurs, there are many speculations about Raptor, but not all of them are justified. Specifically, the media has been touting the hypothesis that this raptor — a relative of the much smaller four-winged microraptor — was capable of powered flight. While it is true that the tail feathers of the dragon were a foot long and may have had some navigational functions, they could also have been strictly decorative and simply evolved as a trait of sexual selection.
Another clue is that the aerial realism of the Changyu Raptor is exaggerated, this raptor is quite large, about three feet from head to tail, which would make it far less seaworthy than the small raptor (after all, modern turkeys also have feathers!). At the very least, though, the dragon should provide new clues about how feathered dinosaurs learned to fly in the early Cretaceous.
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Hidden Volan
Stephen A. Czerkas/Prehistoric Wiki
name
Cryptovolans (Greek for "hidden leaflet"); Pronounced CRIP-toe-VO-lanz
habitat
Asian woodlands
Historical period
Early Cretaceous (130 million to 120 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs 5-10 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
long tail; Feathers of the forelimbs and hindlimbs
Like the "crypto" in its name, Cryptovolans has caused controversy among paleontologists, who aren't quite sure how to classify this early Cretaceous feathered dinosaur. Some experts believe that Cryptovolans is actually a "primary synonym" for the more famous Microraptor, a four-winged bird of prey that caused quite a stir in the paleontological community a few years ago, while others believe that it should have its own genus, mainly because it has a longer tail than Microraptor. To add insult to injury, one scientist insisted that Cryptoptera not only had its own genus, but also evolved more than Archaeopteryx at the ends of birds of the dinosaur-bird spectrum – and therefore should be considered prehistoric birds rather than feathered dinosaurs!
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Dakotara Dragon
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
The late Cretaceous Dakota dragon was the second bird of prey ever found in the Hell Creek formation; This dinosaur type fossil has a distinct "quill knob" on its forelimbs, meaning it almost certainly has winged forearms. Check out Dakotaron's in-depth introduction
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Dainonikus
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
The "velociraptors" in Jurassic Park are actually modeled after Deinonychus, a ferocious human-sized bird of prey characterized by huge claws on its hind feet and gripping hands – which are not as clever as portrayed in the film.
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Lizards
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Dromaeosauroides (Greek, meaning "like Dromaeosaurus"); PRONOUNCED DROE-MAY-OH-SORE-OY-DEEZ
habitat
Woodlands of Northern Europe
Historical period
Early Cretaceous (140 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 10 feet long and weighs 200 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Big; claws with bent hind feet; Probably feathers
The name Dromaeosauroides is rather tongue-in-cheek and may have made this carnivore less known to the public. Not only is this the only dinosaur found in Denmark (several fossilized teeth from the Baltic island of Bornholm), but it is also one of the first birds of prey to be discovered, dating back 140 million years to the early Cretaceous. As you might have guessed, the 200-pound Dromaeosauroides are named after the more famous Dromaeosaurus ("running lizard"), which is much smaller and lived tens of millions of years later.
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Delong
Yinan Chen/Wikimedia Commons/Public domain
name
Dromaeosaurus (Greek for "running lizard"); PRONOUNCED DRO-MAY-OH-SORE-US
habitat
North American plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (750,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 6 feet long and weighs 25 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; powerful jaws and teeth; Probably feathers
Dromaeosaurus is the eponymous genus of dromaeosaurus, a small, fast, bipedal, possibly feathered-covered dinosaur known to the public as a bird of prey. Still, this dinosaur differed from more famous birds of prey such as Velociraptor in some important ways: Dromaeosaurus had a relatively robust skull, jaw and teeth, a very tyrannosaur-like trait for this small animal, for example. Despite its status among paleontologists, Dromaeosaurus (Greek for "running lizard") is not well represented in the fossil record; All we know about this bird of prey are some scattered bones unearthed in Canada in the early 20th century, mostly under the supervision of pirate fossil hunter Barnum Brown.
Analysis of the fossils revealed that Dromaeosaurus was a more powerful dinosaur than Velociraptors: it had a bite force of up to three times (measured in pounds per square inch), and it preferred to rip its prey with its teeth nose rather than a single oversized claw on each hind foot. The recent discovery of a closely related bird of prey, Dakotaraplong, adds weight to this "tooth-first" theory; Like Dromaeosaurus, this dinosaur had relatively inflexible hind paws and was of little use in close combat.
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Gracily raptor
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Graciliraptor (Greek for "elegant thief"); Pronounced grah-sill-ih-rap-tore
habitat
Asian woodlands
Historical period
Early Cretaceous period (12.5<> billion years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs several pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; Feather; Large single paw on the hind foot
Found in China's famous Liaoning fossil bed — the last resting place of various small feathered dinosaurs from the early Cretaceous — Graciiraptor is one of the earliest and smallest birds of prey ever discovered, only about three feet long and weighing a few pounds. In fact, paleontologists speculate that Graciliraptor occupies a position close to the "last common ancestors" of birds of prey, troodontids (feathered dinosaurs closely related to Troodon), and the first true birds of the Mesozoic era, possibly evolving around this time. While it's unclear if it's similarly equipped, Graciliraptor also appears to be closely related to the famous four-winged microraptor, which arrived on the scene millions of years later.
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Linherapron
Smokeybjb/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Ringhraputo (Greek for "Hunter of the Forest River"); Pronounced as Lin Hey Hey Rap Tear
habitat
Central Asian plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (850,000-750,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 25 feet long and weighs <> pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
long legs and tail; bipedal posture; Probably feathers
In 2008, well-preserved Lin Hesaurus fossils were discovered during an expedition in Mongolia's riverfront region, and after two years of preparation, a smooth, possibly feathered bird of prey was found that wandered the plains and woodlands of Central Asia in search of food during the Late Cretaceous. Comparisons with another Mongolian dromaeosaur, Velociraptor, are inevitable, but one of the authors of the paper announcing Linheraptor says it's best compared to the equally humble Tsaagan (another similar bird of prey, Mahakala, found in these same fossil beds).
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Luanchuan raptor
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Luanchuan raptor (Greek for "Luanchuan thief"); Pronounced loo-WAN-chwan-rap-tore
habitat
Asian woodlands
Historical period
Late Cretaceous (700,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 3-4 feet long and weighs 5-10 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; bipedal posture; Probably feathers
Despite its obscurity, this tiny, possibly feathered Luanchuan raptor holds an important place in the dinosaur record books: it was the first Asian bird of prey to be found in eastern China rather than northeast China (most ymaeosaurs from this part of the world, such as velociraptors, lived further west in modern Mongolia). In addition to this, Luanchuan raptor seems to be a fairly typical "dinosaur bird" in time and place, probably hunting in groups to overwhelm the larger dinosaurs as prey. Like other feathered dinosaurs, Luanchuan raptors occupy an intermediate branch on the tree of bird evolution.
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Microraptor
Corey Ford/Getty Images
The vetoraptor uneasily blends into the bird of prey family tree. This small dinosaur had wings on its forelimbs and hindlimbs, but it may not have the ability to fly powered: instead, paleontologists imagined it gliding from tree to tree (like a flying squirrel).
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Neukun raptor
PaleoGeekSquared/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
name
Neuquan Raptor (Greek for "Neuquén Thief"); PRONOUNCED NOY-KWEN-RAP-TORE
habitat
Woodlands of South America
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (900,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 50 feet long and weighs <> pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Large size; bipedal posture; feather
If the paleontologists who discovered it could act together, Neuquenraptor today could become the first confirmed bird of prey from South America. Unfortunately, the thunder of this feathered dinosaur was eventually stolen by Unenlagia, which was found in Argentina a few months later, but thanks to shrewd analytical work, it was named first. Today, the weight of the evidence is that Neuquendosaurus was actually a species (or specimen) of Unenlagia, characterized by its unusually large size and propensity to flapping its arms (but not actually flying).
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nucleus
Mark Witton/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0
name
Nuthetes (Greek for "monitor"); PRONOUNCED NO-THEH-TEEZ
habitat
Woodlands of Western Europe
Historical period
Early Cretaceous (14,514.0 million to <><> million years ago)
size
It is about 100 feet long and weighs <> pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; bipedal posture; Probably feathers
As the genus in question has developed, Nuthetes has proven to be a difficult nut to crack. After its discovery (mid-19th century), it took more than a decade for this dinosaur to be classified as a theropod dinosaur. What kind of theropod dinosaur is the question: was Nutthetes a close relative of Proceratosaurus, the ancient ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, or was it a velociraptor like Dromaeosaurus? The problem with the last category (which is only grudgingly accepted by paleontologists) is that the history of Nuthetes dates back 140 million years to the early Cretaceous period, which would make it the earliest bird of prey in the fossil record. The jury remains undetermined until further fossils are found.
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Panparapron
Eloy Manzanero/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Panparaputto (Greek for "thief of the pampas"); Pronounced PAM-pah-rap-tore
habitat
South American plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (900,000-850,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about two feet long and weighs several pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; bipedal posture; feather
The province of Neuquén in Patagonia, Argentina, has proven to be a rich source of dinosaur fossils from the Late Cretaceous. Panparaprusaurus was originally diagnosed as a juvenile of Neuquenraptor, another South American bird of prey, and was elevated to genus due to its well-preserved hind feet (with single, curved, elevated claws characteristic of all raptors). With the arrival of dromaeosaurus, the feathered Panpalapu dragon was at the tiny end of the scale, only about two feet long from head to tail and weighing only a few pounds, drenched.
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Dragon
Conty/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0
name
Fire raptor (Greek for "fire thief"); PRONOUNCED PIE-ROE-RAP-TORE
habitat
Western European Plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous (700,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 8 feet long and weighs 100-150 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
There are large, sickle-shaped claws on the feet; Probably feathers
As you may have guessed from the last part of its name, Pyrorapator belongs to the same family of theropod dinosaurs as Velociraptor and Microraptor: birds of prey, which are characterized by speed, ferocity, one-clawed hind feet, and (in most cases) feathers. Pyrorapator ("fire thief") got its name because it stole fire, and even breathed fire, in addition to the usual array of birds of prey: a more bland explanation, the only known fossils of this dinosaur were found after the forest fires in southern France in 2000.
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Rahonavis
Bernard Sandler via FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0
name
Rahonavis (Greek for "cloud bird"); PRONOUNCED RAH-HOE-NAY-VISS
habitat
Woodlands of Madagascar
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (750,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
About a foot long, a pound
diet
Probably insects
Distinctive features
Small size; Feather; There is a curved paw on each foot
Rahonavis is one of the creatures that has triggered a lasting feud among paleontologists. When it was first discovered (an incomplete skeleton unearthed in Madagascar in 1995), researchers thought it was a bird, but further research revealed certain common features of Dromaeosaurus (better known to the public as a bird of prey). Like undisputed birds of prey like Velociraptors and Deinonychus, Rahonavis had a huge claw on each of his hind feet, among other bird-like features of raptors.
What is the current perception of Lahonavis? Most scientists agree that birds of prey are one of the early ancestors of birds, meaning that Rahonavis may have been the "missing link" between the two families. The thing is, it won't be the only missing link; Dinosaurs may have evolved into flight several times, and only one of these lineages went on to produce modern birds.
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Lizards
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0
name
Saurornitholestes (Greek for "lizard bird thief"); Noticeable pain or nightmares
habitat
North American plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (750,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 5 feet long and weighs about 30 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
sharp teeth; large paws on the feet; Probably feathers
If Saurornitholestes were given a manageable name, it might be as popular as its more famous cousin, Velociraptor. Both dinosaurs are excellent examples of Late Cretaceous dromaeosaurus (better known to the public as birds of prey), which were small, agile, with sharp teeth, relatively large brains, large claws on hind feet, and (possibly) feathers. Seductively, paleontologists discovered the wing bone of the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, with a lizard tooth embedded inside. Since it is unlikely that a 30-pound bird of prey will knock down a 200-pound pterosaur on its own, this can serve as evidence that a) lizards hunted in droves or b) more likely, a lucky lizard happened to encounter a dead Quetzalcoatl and took a bite from the corpse.
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Shanag
FunkMonk/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
Shanag (after the Buddhist "Champa dance"); Pronounced as nagging
habitat
Central Asian plains
Historical period
Early Cretaceous period (13.0<>billion years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about three feet long and weighs 10-15 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Small size; Feather; Bipedal posture
In the early Cretaceous period, 130 million years ago, it was difficult to distinguish between one small feathered dinosaur and another—the line between birds of prey and "long-toothed" and common vanilla, bird-like theropods is still changing. As far as paleontologists know, Xanag was an early bird of prey closely related to the contemporary tetrapterosaurus, but also shared some features with the later family of feathered dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous Troton. Since what we know about Shanag consists of only part of the lower jaw, further fossil finds should help determine its exact location on the dinosaur evolutionary tree.
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Unragia
Sergey Krasovsky
name
Unragia ("half-bird" in Mapuche language); PRONOUNCED OO-NEN-LAH-GEE-AH
habitat
South American plains
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (900,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 50 feet long and weighs <> pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Large size; Slap on the arm; Probably feathers
While it is undoubtedly a dromaeosaurus (what the average person calls a bird of prey), Unenlagia raises some puzzling questions for evolutionary biologists. This feathered dinosaur features its very soft shoulder girdles, which gives its arms a wider range of motion than its counterparts of prey – so it was only a small step to imagine that Unenlagia was actually flapping its feathered arms, which most likely resembled wings.
Confusingly, Unenlagia is apparently too big, about six feet long and 50 pounds, to fly into the air (in comparison, a flying pterosaur with a comparable wingspan weighs much less). This raises a thorny question: Did Unenlagia produce a (now extinct) flying feathered offspring, similar to modern birds, or was it a flightless relative of the first real birds tens of millions of years before it?
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Utah raptor
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
Utah raptor was by far the largest bird of prey, which raises a serious puzzle: this dinosaur predates more famous descendants of the mid-Cretaceous period, such as Deinonychus and Velociraptor, tens of millions of years earlier!
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Mutant Dragon
Abujoy/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
name
mutant raptor (Greek for "thief of the Var River"); PRONOUNCED VAH-REE-RAP-TORE
habitat
Woodlands of Western Europe
Historical period
Late Cretaceous period (850,000-650,000 years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 7 feet long and weighs about 100-200 pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
long arms; Long, light skull with many teeth
Despite its impressive name, the French mutant dragon has a place in the second echelon of the bird family of prey, as not everyone accepts that the scattered fossil remains of this dinosaur add up to a convincing genus (it's not even clear exactly when this dromaeosaurus lived). As it reconstructs, the Variraptor is slightly smaller than the North American Deinonychus, with proportionally lighter heads and longer arms. There has also been speculation (unlike most birds of prey) that the mutant raptor may have been a scavenger rather than an active hunter, although more convincing fossil remains certainly support this.
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Velociraptors
Lionero Calvetti/Getty Images
Velociraptor was not a particularly large dinosaur, although it did have a despicable character. This feathered bird of prey is about the size of a large chicken, and there is no evidence that it is as intelligent as portrayed in the movie.
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Zhen Yuanlong
Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
name
Zhenyuanlong (Chinese as "Zhenyuanlong"); Pronounced True Yan Dragon
habitat
Asian woodlands
Historical period
Early Cretaceous period (12.5<> billion years ago)
Dimensions and weight
It is about 20 feet long and weighs about <> pounds
diet
meat
Distinctive features
Relatively large in size; short arms; Primitive feathers
There is something in the Chinese bone bed that is suitable for well-preserved fossil specimens. The latest example is the Zhenyuan Dragon, unveiled to the world in 2015, which represents an almost complete skeleton (only the back of the tail is missing) with a fossil imprint of slender feathers. For the Early Cretaceous raptor, Zhenyuansaurus was quite large (about five feet long, which puts it in the same weight class as later velociraptors), but its arm-to-body ratio was relatively short, and it was almost certainly unable to fly. The paleontologists who discovered it (no doubt seeking news coverage) called it "the furry feathered poodle from hell."