# Velociraptor (Velociraptor mongoliensis) — DinoLand

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### id=3: Velociraptor (Velociraptor mongoliensis)

- URL: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=3
- Diet: Carnivore
- Era: Cretaceous
- Period: 75–71 million years ago
- Length: 2 m
- Weight: ≈15–20 кг
- Height: 0,5 m
- Speed: до 40 km/h
- Habitat: Eolian dunes, interdune wetlands, and braided streams
- Region: Mongolia (Gobi Desert)
- Discovered: 1923, American Museum of Natural History expedition

Fact: “Feathered pack hunter—sickle claw used to anchor struggling prey.”

Description: Velociraptor was a small but formidable dromaeosaurid, now understood from associated integumentary evidence to be extensively feathered. The enlarged, recurved ungual on pedal digit II is widely interpreted as a grapple/holdfast structure used while subduing prey. The celebrated “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen, preserving Velociraptor locked with Protoceratops, offers rare behavioral insight into Late Cretaceous aridland predator–prey dynamics on ancient dune fields of the Gobi.

Features:
  - Body feathers are documented by direct impressions and phylogenetic bracketing
  - The sickle claw could exceed ~6.5 cm along the outer curve
  - Relatively enlarged braincase for its body size among non-avian theropods

Related genera: Deinonychus, Utahraptor, Achillobator


## Citation

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

Web: https://www.dinoland.ai/species.html?lang=en&id=3
Index: https://www.dinoland.ai/llms-en.txt