# Deinonychus (Deinonychus antirrhopus) — DinoLand

> Field Journal — free dinosaur encyclopedia: 33 species with photos and video, catalog, ancient world maps (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Gondwana), quiz, and paleontology glossary.

### id=20: Deinonychus (Deinonychus antirrhopus)

- URL: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=20
- Diet: Carnivore
- Era: Cretaceous
- Period: 115–108 million years ago
- Length: 3,5 m
- Weight: ≈70–100 кг
- Height: 1 m
- Speed: до 40 km/h
- Habitat: Deltaic forests and seasonal mud plains
- Region: North America
- Discovered: 1964, John H. Ostrom

Fact: “John Ostrom’s key to the dinosaur renaissance—birdlike metabolism.”

Description: Deinonychus revolutionized paleontology by demonstrating that dromaeosaurids were agile, potentially endothermic hunters rather than sluggish reptiles. The enlarged sickle claw worked in concert with forelimb feathers and a stiffened tail to balance rapid strikes against ornithopod prey as documented at the Yale ‘Tenontosaurus’ sites. Its anatomy foreshadowed the ancestry of living birds.

Features:
  - The second pedal ungual functioned as a holdfast weapon
  - Ossified rods stiffened the tail into an inertial counterbalance
  - Body feathers are inferred from phylogenetic relatives

Related genera: Velociraptor, Utahraptor, Achillobator


## Citation

Field Journal — Dinosaur Encyclopedia — https://www.dinoland.ai

Web: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=20
Index: https://www.dinoland.ai/llms-en.txt