subject: The Rise Of The Velociraptor [print this page] The Velociraptor gained popularity in our generation after being recreated in the 1993 Spielberg thriller "Jurassic Park" and its sequels "The Lost World" and "Jurassic Park III." Before this, it was the Tyrannosaurus Rex that embodied all the terror of dinosauria. Before "Jurassic Park," we almost had no idea how a man-sized dinosaur could systematically butcher a human prey.
Crichton described the Velociraptor as six feet tall, powerfully built with strong legs and tail. Its body had a muscular torso, two forearms held tightly alongside its body and its claws dangling. Its body had an iridescently speckled pattern. The beast alertly looked side to side with abrupt bird-like jerks, its head bobbing up and down as it walked [1]. Crichton skillfully and scientifically drew with words to construct the bird in the Velociraptor. The writer also expressed in his book that the Velociraptor was "large-brained" and "more intelligent than most dinosaurs" [2].
The Velociraptor lived during the last part of the Cretaceous Period that began about 144 million years ago and lasted for 79 million years, then destroyed in a massive dying-out of as yet unknown origin. "Velociraptor" means "quick plunderer," a bipedal carnivore six-feet-long from head to tail-tip. Its remains were found in China and Mongolia.
Unknown to many, the Deinonychus is also considered to be a Velociraptor. Its very name means "terrible claw," after the oversized scythe-like claw on the second toe of each of its muscular legs. It lived 113 million years ago, measured 10 feet long (3 meters) and weighed around 130 lbs. (60 kg.). Its fossils were discovered in Montana and Wyoming in the United States by American paleontologist John Ostrom of Yale University's Peabody Museum in 1969. Ostrom was one of the warm-blooded-dinosaur advocates, and he used his reconstruction of the Deinonychus to prove his theory: that its erect posture was an indication to its raised body temperature. He further claimed that the Deinonychus and other smaller, warm-blooded theropods (carnivorous predatory dinosaurs) evolved into birds.
The Deinonychus probably may have lived its life as a pack hunter. This is based on a famous discovery of around four Deinonychus specimen found at once along with the remains of a large Tenontosaurus. Scientists are almost convinced that the Deinonychi were in a process of attacking the ornithopod (plant-eating dinosaurs).
Though there are several possibilities to explain the massive dying out of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the most popular today is the meteorite or asteroid impact theory. It is said that this cosmic visitation could have slammed a crater on the planet 200 kilometers across, vaporizing rock and flinging dense clouds of dust and water droplets into the atmosphere. Strong winds dragging these particles could have shrouded the planet causing dark global storms, torrential rains that caused floods to drown and kill the dinosaurs, including the Velociraptors. Virtually all Velociraptor fossils indicate a swift and merciless death by water.
In 1979, a thin worldwide deposit of iridium was discovered. Iridium is a rare element often found in meteorites. Along with this find was the discovery of impact-fractured sand grains, or shocked quartz, the impact theory began to solidify. Then in the 1990's, a buried 110-mile crater was found in Mexico.
