This Saturday I have an amazing creature for you all. It’s another dinosaur, but this one is a theropod. Dear reader, this is a post about the Utahraptor!
The Utahraptor is as mentioned a theropod dinosaur, it belongs to the group dromaeosauridae which counts more known dinosaurs such as the velociraptor. It lived during the Cretaceous the last of the 3 periods that represents Mesozoicum, the age of the dinosaurs. The Utahraptor got its name after it was discovered in the state of Utah in the USA in 1991. Its full name roughly means Utah’s predator.
The Utahraptor is basically a Velociraptor on steroids. Imagine a velociraptor atleast 7 meters long covered in feathers. That’s the Utahraptor. Imagine seeing one of these guys in the Cretacious period, it must have been surreal. I mean it must’ve looked like a giant mutated predatory chicken! And to think about some Paleontologist think that the Tyrannosaurus might also have had feathers, oh wow…
The Utahraptor isn’t a very well known dinosaur. It has had some appearances in TV though. Perhaps it is most known for being in the British documentary Walking With Dinosaurs where it is depicted as a big scaly creature hunting Iguanodons. The Utahraptor is depicted a bit inaccurate though, because like I stated previously it had feathers, but the show is from 1999 and the fact that some dinosaurs had feathers is something that is still pretty new to science!
Feathers.. on dinosaurs? Dear lord!!
SvarSletAnd that's why mormons don't drink.
SvarSletthe utahraptor looks very leopard like
SvarSletI loved watching the series walking with dinosaurs, your posts are bring back somr good memories :)
SvarSletYeah if that thing were in Jurasic Park the movie would've been over in 5 minutes.
SvarSletI heard that when the first Jurassic Park was made, there weren't any raptors known to exist as big as the ones in the movie. Shortly after, this dinosaur was discovered and was close enough to those in the movie.
SvarSletnow i want to go watch "walking with dinosaurs!"
SvarSleti can't believe jurassic park lied to us about raptors..
SvarSletCan I have one as a pet?
SvarSletWow, its huge in comparison to that human in the picture.
SvarSletI dont see any feathers on your picture :P
SvarSletdamn, that thing has wings!
SvarSletThey should totally revive dinasours, the world is just empty without them.
SvarSletcool post ! i like it, wach my blog to.
SvarSletcool post ! i like it
SvarSletDamn, I wouldn't wanna mess with that thing; it looks fierce. Although seeing it covered in feathers might make me bust out laughing (and then get eaten).
SvarSletThis looks like it would make a good pet :) I'd ride him everywhere I went.
SvarSletlooks almost like one of the creatures from the avatar movie
SvarSletEazy P:
SvarSletThe raptors in the movie were based on Deinonychus which was thought to be a velociraptor at the time! :)
Peter:
Like I said, BBC made some mistakes in their prgram like the LACK OF FEATHERS on some dinos ;) Look at picture nr 2.
Great post! Dinos are such interesting creatures. As a child I went to a dinosaur park.. saw footprints and some fossils... very neat. Have a great day. :)
SvarSlet