Velociraptors were first discovered in 1923 by Peter Kaisen on a Roy Chapman Andrews expedition in the Gobi Desert. All he found was a crushed skull and a claw, the very claw that made these dinosaurs famous in the movies.
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He wasn’t allowed back after political tensions shut him out, so much of the later work was done without him. Velociraptors had long narrow snouts built for quick snapping bites, serrated teeth shaped like fishhooks to keep hold of prey, and backward curves that made them bitey little murder turkeys.
They weren’t the giant monsters from Jurassic Park. At about two to three feet tall, they were closer to a turkey, but clever. Their brain-to-body ratio showed real intelligence for their size. Evidence in the eyes suggests they hunted at night, and studies show they didn’t live in packs. One Velociraptor was even found with a pterosaur bone in its gut, showing scavenging as well as hunting. Add in feathers, and likely warm-blooded metabolism, and you get something closer to a vicious bird than a scaly movie monster.
Velociraptors carried a stiff tail reinforced with tendons to balance that long skull and snapping jaws. They were indiscriminate predators that hunted and seized prey but also scavenged when the chance came along.
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Also, if you, or a teacher friend, would like a 20-30 minute lesson plan about velociraptor fossils, feel free to download and share this one:
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