velociraptor

Everyday

A velociraptor was a small, fast, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia and China; it ran on two legs, had feathers and a large curved claw on each foot. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons on dinosaurs and fossils, the velociraptor is famous from films like «Jurassic Park», where it is shown as large and scaly; real fossils show it was about the size of a turkey and had feathers, like birds, which are its distant relatives. A famous fossil shows a velociraptor fighting a protoceratops. Phrases: velociraptor claw, a feathered velociraptor.

Examples

• A velociraptor had a big curved claw on each foot. tree →
• Real velociraptors were about the size of a turkey. tree →
• Fossils show that velociraptors had feathers. tree →
• The name velociraptor means «swift thief». tree →
• A velociraptor fossil was found locked in a fight with another dinosaur. tree →
• In the film the velociraptors were much bigger than real ones. tree →
• The velociraptor ran on two legs and held its tail out straight. tree →
• Birds are distant relatives of dinosaurs like the velociraptor. tree →

Note

Countable: a velociraptor, velociraptors; often shortened to «raptor». Pronounced «vuh-LOSS-ih-rap-tor». As a scientific genus name it is written with a capital V and in italics: Velociraptor. The name comes from Latin: «velox» (swift) + «raptor» (thief, robber). Myth: the films' velociraptors were really based on a bigger relative.