What do scientists think of the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park"
Aug 18, 2023 21:12:34 GMT
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Post by hezigod848 on Aug 18, 2023 21:12:34 GMT
At the time the movie came out they were fairly realistic, besides the ones they had creative liberties with (Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus), but science moved on from those depictions pretty quickly and now they all range from somewhat to severely inaccurate. I’ll go through all the dinosaurs in the movie and go over what parts of their portrayal did not stand the test of time
DISCLAIMER: Some of the depictions used to show the accurate modern restorations of the dinosaurs might not be 100% accurate or include some details that are hypothetical or up for interpretation, but they showcase the differences with the movie I am trying to illustrate that we DO know are correct. Also, if there is anything in here I missed or got wrong please mention it in the replies below!
Brachiosaurus is one of the most accurate designs in the movie. The neck seems to be held a tad too high and straight, and is also quite thin. Nowadays Sauropods are depicted with much thicker necks that are held a bit further out horizontally. It’s hard to get a great look but the feet don’t look correct, they are basically just stereotypical round, elephant-like feet with a nail on each front digit, when Sauropods actually had very strange and unique feet (seen below). The feet also seem to be a bit too big compared to the body and rest of the leg. The other big inaccuracy is the placement of the nostril on the top of the head where the actual nasal opening on the skull is, rather than at the front of the snout like it should be. And the top of the head should probably have some more tissue to correspond with the large nasal passage. It is worthy of note that the Brachiosaurus in this movie is technically probably not Brachiosaurus anymore, most likely based on its relative Giraffatitan brancai which is known from more complete fossils and was classified as Brachiosaurus brancai until 1991 when the film was still being worked on. The real Brachiosaurus would’ve looked similar regardless.The movie does say it’s warm blooded and social though, both of which are correct based on what we know about Sauropods (and in terms of warm-blood, all dinosaurs).
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/vNcrtwO.jpg
i.imgur.com/gw141TB.jpg
i.imgur.com/UkpBnF4.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/UWw1eSI.jpg
i.imgur.com/gSGd29M.jpg
i.imgur.com/mDvF1Ot.jpg
Dilophosaurus is one of two dinosaurs the film actually fictionalized on purpose, giving it a frill and venomous spit. It is also much smaller than it is in reality, being smaller than a person in the movie but around 6 meters long (20 feet) and half a ton in life. It actually looks like it has lips in the movie, which seems to be what it is best supported by the known evidence but still not 100% set in stone, but it’s also not shown closing its mouth all the way for some reason so its teeth are visible at all times. The teeth wouldn’t be visible when the mouth is closed under lips. The head also looks too boxy, it should probably be thinner and longer. The skull of the real animal has a bit of a notch toward the front of the upper jaw but I don’t know if it would be noticeable in an actual living animal through all the tissue and such. The last issue is that the hands are pronated with the palms facing backwards, which it could not do in real life and would’ve held its palms facing inwards toward each other. Feathers are also a possibility, this is another thing not set in stone but it seems feathers evolved before dinosaurs (before their common ancestor with pterosaurs), but whether Dilophosaurus itself would’ve had them is not known. It’s also worth noting the crest shape shown in the movie is popular convention and we don’t actually know exactly what they would have looked like or how big they were.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/uGGYQ15.jpg
i.imgur.com/Fr7ZYni.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/FaYpTAN.jpg
i.imgur.com/sqbIbHd.jpg
i.imgur.com/zijmi4r.jpg
i.imgur.com/KnFNhkm.jpg
(This last picture is to illustrate what fossil material we actually have of the crests. They could extend any size or shape beyond this, and that’s just the bony part without considering any possible keratin or other tissue covering over the bone)
Gallimimus has a somewhat accurate depiction in the movie outside of issues that plague other dinosaurs as well. Really the only issue unique to it is that it’s tail looks too short, giving it a sort of compressed body shape. But the other issues it has are once again pronated hands when it shouldn’t be able to hold them that way and the lack of feathers. Unlike with Dilophosaurus, feathers in Gallimimus are a certainty. Based on feather preservations in relatives, it would’ve had wings and had most of its body covered by feathers outside of the foot (yes, that scaly bottom part of the leg in the pictures below is actually the whole foot, they walk only on their toes) and possibly the underside of the body. The movie does correctly describe them as birdlike and active, and also they are correctly shown as strong runners. They are shown to be social here as well, living in a flock, which is supported by some fossils of a few relatives all being found together, but is an assumption for Gallimimus itself as far as I know. It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption and fine depiction for the movie, but we can’t assume all members of its family live in groups just because some of them did. If we found fossils of caribou in a huge herd we couldn’t assume all deer live the same way.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/KMoMuS6.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/tir1C38.jpg
i.imgur.com/4IR5mIa.jpg
Parasaurolophus is one we barely get a look at but we can see it’s too skinny and lightly built, especially the neck. In reality these would have been very big and heavy animals, with most adults probably being between 8–10 meters (26–33 feet) in length and weighing 2–4 tonnes (4,400–8,800 pounds), but some fossil material shows certain individuals could get much larger than this still. The fossils indicate the neck curves down and back up in a sort of U shape but this is now thought to be just the bones with lots of tissue filling in a thicker and straighter neck. Unfortunately they are too far away to get a look at other details. They are also correctly shown as social animals though, but also seem like they are too small compared to the Brachiosaurs in the background. Parasaurolophus should be around half their length when the Brachiosaurs are shown with their neck held straight up like that.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/MJqUyfo.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/hXzPrFh.jpg
i.imgur.com/eOhDTGm.jpg
Triceratops is probably the most accurate design in the movie, with only minor issues. The little horns all around the frill should be more rounded than pointed, and the protrusion at the cheek area should have one larger pointed horn. The feet shouldn’t be this round and elephant like, with more distinct toes rather than one round thing with nails, and I don’t think the number of digits is correct.
Movie
i.imgur.com/tQSpxH9.jpg
i.imgur.com/UxE6G4s.jpg
ACCURATE (the inclusion of small spikes or quills around the body in the below pictures is a hypothetical, based off it’s much smaller and earlier relative Psittacosaurus, which became popular in Triceratops depictions at a certain point)
i.imgur.com/49pNBF9.jpg
i.imgur.com/YvYK866.jpg
i.imgur.com/j78jpuD.jpg
Tyrannosaurus is one of the two main dinosaur stars of the movie, but the film’s version isn’t exactly what it looked or acted like in real life. The head isn’t really the right shape. It should be longer but not as tall, with the back end of the head being noticeably wider than the snout. T. rex had distinct binocular vision and you should be able to see both the forward facing eyes and the wider back of the head from a frontal perspective. As I said before there is still some debate on lips but the evidence seems to point towards them being there, and so the teeth shouldn’t be sticking out when the mouth is closed if it had lips. The head ornamentation is actually pretty spot on even though I don’t think it was really known at the time like it is today, with those protrusions above the eyes as well as that rough, bumpy area at the top of the snout. However, the head is also “shrink wrapped” as you can see the openings of the skull through the tissue in the movie when that definitely would not be the case in life unless the individual was starved practically to death. Other than the head, the body shape doesn’t look correct. Tyrannosaurus was a very heavily built animal and the body should really be more rounded and thick. The movie’s also looks too tall with longer legs than it should have, towering over the humans and Gallimimus more than it should. The model they used was reportedly 20 feet (6.1 meters) tall, when in reality it was around 4 meters (13 feet) tall at the hips and held its head slightly higher than that in neutral stance. It also holds its hands pronated again, which isn’t possible. Scales are good. T. rex evolved from smaller feathered animals but would’ve gotten far too large for them to be needed or beneficial to retain body heat. We don’t have much but the skin we have found of T. rex and its close relatives all show scales, but it might’ve still had some small hair like feathers as you see in something like an elephant. The biggest issue with the movie’s portrayal is actually its vision. Famously the animal in the movie has vision “based on movement” and does not see the human characters when they don’t move, even from a very close distance. In reality though, it had some of the best vision of any animal ever and would be able to see them perfectly fine, moving or not, from considerable distance, and it also had an extremely good sense of smell (which the second movie actually touches on) so I would like to think it would know there is prey literally right in front of its nose even if it couldn’t see them. There are some spots I noticed in the movie where it whacks the jeep with the side or front of its snout, when I would assume it really wouldn’t want to do this. Research has found that the snout area of T. rex was very sensitive to touch, which was probably a major part of their communication with other individuals, so it would probably hurt quite a bit to do what it does in the movie rather than ramming with the top of the head. This is just my assumption though I’m not sure if it really wouldn’t want to do that or not. Although an amazing inclusion in the movie for dramatic effect, it obviously would not shake the ground and make a thunderous boom with each step. T. rex is only slightly heavier than a male African bush elephant which walk just as quiet as any other animal. Elephants in both Asia and Africa are known for being silent through dense jungle. Any animal being that loud and easy detect at all times, predator or prey, is obviously a terrible evolutionary trait. I don’t think even the biggest sauropods that weigh 10 times as much would make much noise, if any, when they walk. And lastly, the movie says T. rex could run at 32 miles an hour, which is far too fast. In real life it’s thought to have been more like 10–20 miles per hour and not actually be capable of a true run, only a fast walk or trot-like locomotion.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/qlwcZuZ.jpg
i.imgur.com/SvMzsXR.jpg
i.imgur.com/Y8NGXXs.jpg
i.imgur.com/7ks0P9c.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/7SYtt9O.jpg
i.imgur.com/AI7aj90.jpg
i.imgur.com/hCYWXHK.jpg
i.imgur.com/PQqRFSp.jpg
And last but not least, Velociraptor is probably the most famous inaccurate dinosaur in the movie. There is a lot to go over but I guess a good place to start is what everybody knows: it is too big. It is said at the beginning of the movie that the skeleton Dr. Grant and his team find is around 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, and they also look to be big and heavy in general, probably weighing more than a human in the film. In reality they were only about 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, around two thirds of a meter (2 feet) tall at the hip, and only around 15–20 kilograms (33–44 pounds). The whole animal should look more lightweight. The second glaring issue is the lack of feathers. Velociraptor was even closer to birds than Gallimimus, and would’ve had a full coat of feathers, wings, and possibly some sort of fan or other display structure on the tail. The head shape is completely off. Some of the other dinosaurs had heads that were shaped a bit incorrect, but they aren’t even close for the raptors. Their heads are too boxy, wide, and tall rather than the long and thin snout the real animal had. The hands are once again pronated which it couldn’t do in real life, but the hands of the real animal would’ve folded downward like a bird’s wings as well, and the arm would also be held more like the wing of a bird instead of how the other bipedal dinosaurs hold them. The eyes are given slit pupils like a cat, crocodile, or snake, when there is no reason to believe it shouldn’t have a normal round pupil like a bird. Speaking of the fossil they dig up at the beginning of the movie, that fossil was found in Montana when the real animal only lived in Asia, being found in Mongolia and China. The movie depicts them as hyper intelligent, able to solve complex problems, make sophisticated plans, and remember important details to make those plans. In real life it wouldn’t be unintelligent but clearly not nearly this smart. The movie is also very certain on showing them as wolf-like pack hunters. There isn’t evidence for this in Velociraptor or its relatives, but social hunting is widespread in a lot of animals and they certainly could’ve had social relationships and could have hunted together. However, they wouldn’t be making the complex hunting plans they do in the movie. The film also says they are both astonishing jumpers and capable of running at similar speeds as a cheetah. It is correct the real animal would’ve been a good jumper and also generally quick and agile, but it wasn’t actually well built for running with short, stocky legs (animals adapted for running have long legs because it gives them a longer stride, making them faster). They would’ve been ambush predators, not long distance chasers. Lastly, it is said they would’ve used the curved killing claws on their legs to slash at prey as a sort of primary weapon, when that doesn’t really make sense in reality considering they aren’t serrated so they couldn’t tear through flesh like teeth can, and are generally pretty inconvenient to use in that manner being on the feet. It is thought they actually used their claws to grab onto prey, and combine that with their very strong feet and legs to pin down smaller prey or grab onto larger prey while doing most of the damage with their mouth. This proposed hunting method has been named raptor prey restraint.
Well that is a lot of issues. At least they gave the raptors lips.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/kZmkM0q.jpg
i.imgur.com/c60ArGs.jpg
i.imgur.com/JfGJp8O.jpg
ACCURATE
(the sexual dimorphism in this first picture is just an assumption the artist made. While very common, actual evidence of sexual dimorphism in the fossil record is extremely hard to find. We can assume Velociraptor had some dimorphism but we don’t know what form it took)
i.imgur.com/kk7f5n2.jpg
i.imgur.com/kuRjuEp.jpg
i.imgur.com/Z28TbU3.jpg
i.imgur.com/qSRz8Wm.jpg
i.imgur.com/NkgQYSC.jpg
i.imgur.com/jWSl4hR.jpg
(The last two pictures ARE NOT meant to be depicting Velociraptor itself, rather related animals. I included them to demonstrate what we think their hunting strategy would be for smaller and larger prey and how they use their feet)
DISCLAIMER: Some of the depictions used to show the accurate modern restorations of the dinosaurs might not be 100% accurate or include some details that are hypothetical or up for interpretation, but they showcase the differences with the movie I am trying to illustrate that we DO know are correct. Also, if there is anything in here I missed or got wrong please mention it in the replies below!
Brachiosaurus is one of the most accurate designs in the movie. The neck seems to be held a tad too high and straight, and is also quite thin. Nowadays Sauropods are depicted with much thicker necks that are held a bit further out horizontally. It’s hard to get a great look but the feet don’t look correct, they are basically just stereotypical round, elephant-like feet with a nail on each front digit, when Sauropods actually had very strange and unique feet (seen below). The feet also seem to be a bit too big compared to the body and rest of the leg. The other big inaccuracy is the placement of the nostril on the top of the head where the actual nasal opening on the skull is, rather than at the front of the snout like it should be. And the top of the head should probably have some more tissue to correspond with the large nasal passage. It is worthy of note that the Brachiosaurus in this movie is technically probably not Brachiosaurus anymore, most likely based on its relative Giraffatitan brancai which is known from more complete fossils and was classified as Brachiosaurus brancai until 1991 when the film was still being worked on. The real Brachiosaurus would’ve looked similar regardless.The movie does say it’s warm blooded and social though, both of which are correct based on what we know about Sauropods (and in terms of warm-blood, all dinosaurs).
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/vNcrtwO.jpg
i.imgur.com/gw141TB.jpg
i.imgur.com/UkpBnF4.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/UWw1eSI.jpg
i.imgur.com/gSGd29M.jpg
i.imgur.com/mDvF1Ot.jpg
Dilophosaurus is one of two dinosaurs the film actually fictionalized on purpose, giving it a frill and venomous spit. It is also much smaller than it is in reality, being smaller than a person in the movie but around 6 meters long (20 feet) and half a ton in life. It actually looks like it has lips in the movie, which seems to be what it is best supported by the known evidence but still not 100% set in stone, but it’s also not shown closing its mouth all the way for some reason so its teeth are visible at all times. The teeth wouldn’t be visible when the mouth is closed under lips. The head also looks too boxy, it should probably be thinner and longer. The skull of the real animal has a bit of a notch toward the front of the upper jaw but I don’t know if it would be noticeable in an actual living animal through all the tissue and such. The last issue is that the hands are pronated with the palms facing backwards, which it could not do in real life and would’ve held its palms facing inwards toward each other. Feathers are also a possibility, this is another thing not set in stone but it seems feathers evolved before dinosaurs (before their common ancestor with pterosaurs), but whether Dilophosaurus itself would’ve had them is not known. It’s also worth noting the crest shape shown in the movie is popular convention and we don’t actually know exactly what they would have looked like or how big they were.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/uGGYQ15.jpg
i.imgur.com/Fr7ZYni.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/FaYpTAN.jpg
i.imgur.com/sqbIbHd.jpg
i.imgur.com/zijmi4r.jpg
i.imgur.com/KnFNhkm.jpg
(This last picture is to illustrate what fossil material we actually have of the crests. They could extend any size or shape beyond this, and that’s just the bony part without considering any possible keratin or other tissue covering over the bone)
Gallimimus has a somewhat accurate depiction in the movie outside of issues that plague other dinosaurs as well. Really the only issue unique to it is that it’s tail looks too short, giving it a sort of compressed body shape. But the other issues it has are once again pronated hands when it shouldn’t be able to hold them that way and the lack of feathers. Unlike with Dilophosaurus, feathers in Gallimimus are a certainty. Based on feather preservations in relatives, it would’ve had wings and had most of its body covered by feathers outside of the foot (yes, that scaly bottom part of the leg in the pictures below is actually the whole foot, they walk only on their toes) and possibly the underside of the body. The movie does correctly describe them as birdlike and active, and also they are correctly shown as strong runners. They are shown to be social here as well, living in a flock, which is supported by some fossils of a few relatives all being found together, but is an assumption for Gallimimus itself as far as I know. It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption and fine depiction for the movie, but we can’t assume all members of its family live in groups just because some of them did. If we found fossils of caribou in a huge herd we couldn’t assume all deer live the same way.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/KMoMuS6.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/tir1C38.jpg
i.imgur.com/4IR5mIa.jpg
Parasaurolophus is one we barely get a look at but we can see it’s too skinny and lightly built, especially the neck. In reality these would have been very big and heavy animals, with most adults probably being between 8–10 meters (26–33 feet) in length and weighing 2–4 tonnes (4,400–8,800 pounds), but some fossil material shows certain individuals could get much larger than this still. The fossils indicate the neck curves down and back up in a sort of U shape but this is now thought to be just the bones with lots of tissue filling in a thicker and straighter neck. Unfortunately they are too far away to get a look at other details. They are also correctly shown as social animals though, but also seem like they are too small compared to the Brachiosaurs in the background. Parasaurolophus should be around half their length when the Brachiosaurs are shown with their neck held straight up like that.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/MJqUyfo.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/hXzPrFh.jpg
i.imgur.com/eOhDTGm.jpg
Triceratops is probably the most accurate design in the movie, with only minor issues. The little horns all around the frill should be more rounded than pointed, and the protrusion at the cheek area should have one larger pointed horn. The feet shouldn’t be this round and elephant like, with more distinct toes rather than one round thing with nails, and I don’t think the number of digits is correct.
Movie
i.imgur.com/tQSpxH9.jpg
i.imgur.com/UxE6G4s.jpg
ACCURATE (the inclusion of small spikes or quills around the body in the below pictures is a hypothetical, based off it’s much smaller and earlier relative Psittacosaurus, which became popular in Triceratops depictions at a certain point)
i.imgur.com/49pNBF9.jpg
i.imgur.com/YvYK866.jpg
i.imgur.com/j78jpuD.jpg
Tyrannosaurus is one of the two main dinosaur stars of the movie, but the film’s version isn’t exactly what it looked or acted like in real life. The head isn’t really the right shape. It should be longer but not as tall, with the back end of the head being noticeably wider than the snout. T. rex had distinct binocular vision and you should be able to see both the forward facing eyes and the wider back of the head from a frontal perspective. As I said before there is still some debate on lips but the evidence seems to point towards them being there, and so the teeth shouldn’t be sticking out when the mouth is closed if it had lips. The head ornamentation is actually pretty spot on even though I don’t think it was really known at the time like it is today, with those protrusions above the eyes as well as that rough, bumpy area at the top of the snout. However, the head is also “shrink wrapped” as you can see the openings of the skull through the tissue in the movie when that definitely would not be the case in life unless the individual was starved practically to death. Other than the head, the body shape doesn’t look correct. Tyrannosaurus was a very heavily built animal and the body should really be more rounded and thick. The movie’s also looks too tall with longer legs than it should have, towering over the humans and Gallimimus more than it should. The model they used was reportedly 20 feet (6.1 meters) tall, when in reality it was around 4 meters (13 feet) tall at the hips and held its head slightly higher than that in neutral stance. It also holds its hands pronated again, which isn’t possible. Scales are good. T. rex evolved from smaller feathered animals but would’ve gotten far too large for them to be needed or beneficial to retain body heat. We don’t have much but the skin we have found of T. rex and its close relatives all show scales, but it might’ve still had some small hair like feathers as you see in something like an elephant. The biggest issue with the movie’s portrayal is actually its vision. Famously the animal in the movie has vision “based on movement” and does not see the human characters when they don’t move, even from a very close distance. In reality though, it had some of the best vision of any animal ever and would be able to see them perfectly fine, moving or not, from considerable distance, and it also had an extremely good sense of smell (which the second movie actually touches on) so I would like to think it would know there is prey literally right in front of its nose even if it couldn’t see them. There are some spots I noticed in the movie where it whacks the jeep with the side or front of its snout, when I would assume it really wouldn’t want to do this. Research has found that the snout area of T. rex was very sensitive to touch, which was probably a major part of their communication with other individuals, so it would probably hurt quite a bit to do what it does in the movie rather than ramming with the top of the head. This is just my assumption though I’m not sure if it really wouldn’t want to do that or not. Although an amazing inclusion in the movie for dramatic effect, it obviously would not shake the ground and make a thunderous boom with each step. T. rex is only slightly heavier than a male African bush elephant which walk just as quiet as any other animal. Elephants in both Asia and Africa are known for being silent through dense jungle. Any animal being that loud and easy detect at all times, predator or prey, is obviously a terrible evolutionary trait. I don’t think even the biggest sauropods that weigh 10 times as much would make much noise, if any, when they walk. And lastly, the movie says T. rex could run at 32 miles an hour, which is far too fast. In real life it’s thought to have been more like 10–20 miles per hour and not actually be capable of a true run, only a fast walk or trot-like locomotion.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/qlwcZuZ.jpg
i.imgur.com/SvMzsXR.jpg
i.imgur.com/Y8NGXXs.jpg
i.imgur.com/7ks0P9c.jpg
ACCURATE
i.imgur.com/7SYtt9O.jpg
i.imgur.com/AI7aj90.jpg
i.imgur.com/hCYWXHK.jpg
i.imgur.com/PQqRFSp.jpg
And last but not least, Velociraptor is probably the most famous inaccurate dinosaur in the movie. There is a lot to go over but I guess a good place to start is what everybody knows: it is too big. It is said at the beginning of the movie that the skeleton Dr. Grant and his team find is around 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, and they also look to be big and heavy in general, probably weighing more than a human in the film. In reality they were only about 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, around two thirds of a meter (2 feet) tall at the hip, and only around 15–20 kilograms (33–44 pounds). The whole animal should look more lightweight. The second glaring issue is the lack of feathers. Velociraptor was even closer to birds than Gallimimus, and would’ve had a full coat of feathers, wings, and possibly some sort of fan or other display structure on the tail. The head shape is completely off. Some of the other dinosaurs had heads that were shaped a bit incorrect, but they aren’t even close for the raptors. Their heads are too boxy, wide, and tall rather than the long and thin snout the real animal had. The hands are once again pronated which it couldn’t do in real life, but the hands of the real animal would’ve folded downward like a bird’s wings as well, and the arm would also be held more like the wing of a bird instead of how the other bipedal dinosaurs hold them. The eyes are given slit pupils like a cat, crocodile, or snake, when there is no reason to believe it shouldn’t have a normal round pupil like a bird. Speaking of the fossil they dig up at the beginning of the movie, that fossil was found in Montana when the real animal only lived in Asia, being found in Mongolia and China. The movie depicts them as hyper intelligent, able to solve complex problems, make sophisticated plans, and remember important details to make those plans. In real life it wouldn’t be unintelligent but clearly not nearly this smart. The movie is also very certain on showing them as wolf-like pack hunters. There isn’t evidence for this in Velociraptor or its relatives, but social hunting is widespread in a lot of animals and they certainly could’ve had social relationships and could have hunted together. However, they wouldn’t be making the complex hunting plans they do in the movie. The film also says they are both astonishing jumpers and capable of running at similar speeds as a cheetah. It is correct the real animal would’ve been a good jumper and also generally quick and agile, but it wasn’t actually well built for running with short, stocky legs (animals adapted for running have long legs because it gives them a longer stride, making them faster). They would’ve been ambush predators, not long distance chasers. Lastly, it is said they would’ve used the curved killing claws on their legs to slash at prey as a sort of primary weapon, when that doesn’t really make sense in reality considering they aren’t serrated so they couldn’t tear through flesh like teeth can, and are generally pretty inconvenient to use in that manner being on the feet. It is thought they actually used their claws to grab onto prey, and combine that with their very strong feet and legs to pin down smaller prey or grab onto larger prey while doing most of the damage with their mouth. This proposed hunting method has been named raptor prey restraint.
Well that is a lot of issues. At least they gave the raptors lips.
MOVIE
i.imgur.com/kZmkM0q.jpg
i.imgur.com/c60ArGs.jpg
i.imgur.com/JfGJp8O.jpg
ACCURATE
(the sexual dimorphism in this first picture is just an assumption the artist made. While very common, actual evidence of sexual dimorphism in the fossil record is extremely hard to find. We can assume Velociraptor had some dimorphism but we don’t know what form it took)
i.imgur.com/kk7f5n2.jpg
i.imgur.com/kuRjuEp.jpg
i.imgur.com/Z28TbU3.jpg
i.imgur.com/qSRz8Wm.jpg
i.imgur.com/NkgQYSC.jpg
i.imgur.com/jWSl4hR.jpg
(The last two pictures ARE NOT meant to be depicting Velociraptor itself, rather related animals. I included them to demonstrate what we think their hunting strategy would be for smaller and larger prey and how they use their feet)
