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Velociraptor, meaning roughly "fast thief", is a genus of small, agile and slender dinosaurs with up-curved skulls and large sickle claws. They are commonly known as raptors, a name which can also refer to other dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Velociraptors had strong jaws with rows of bladed teeth. These, in combination with very big claws on their forelimbs and on one of their toeToes are the digits of the foot of a human or animal. In humans, the toe includes the phalanges of the foot's skeleton; the bones of each toe continue all the way to the heel, although in from the base of the toes they are united in the body of the foot.s (the size of these claws could reach up to the length of the teeth on extinct sabertooth tigers) gave the animals some impressive weaponry. There is some evidence of how these weapons were used: one of the more spectacular specimens of Velociraptor is a complete, articulated skeleton clutching the skeleton of the dinosaur ProtoceratopsProtoceratops is a Late Cretaceous surviving genus of Triceratops forefathers. It's easy to mistake Protoceratops itself to be a forefather of Triceratops due to its "primitive" appearance, and taxonomic position (which has less to do with physical evolut. The slashing toe claw is where the Protoceratops' throat would have been, and Velociraptor's arm is clutched in the herbivore's jaws. The dinosaurs may have been caught in a sandstormA sandstorm is a low-level atmospheric disturbance caused by a strong wind carrying sand particles through the air. They are typically no more than fifty feet above the ground, and are most typically about ten feet high. Surface heating causes sandstorms or buried as a sand duneAlternate meanings: Dune (novel), Dune (movie), Dune (TV miniseries), Dune (music) or Dune (computer game In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by eolian ( wind-related) processes. Bare dunes are subject to shifting location and size based fell on top of them.

Velociraptors are among the most birdlikeFor other meanings of bird see bird (disambiguation). Many see text Birds are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates characterized primarily by feathers, forelimbs modified as wings, and hollow bones. There are almost 9000 known species of birds in dinosaurs known. Recently, fossils of dinosaurs closely related to Velociraptor have been found in ChinaThis article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation). China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo, Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a country in continental East Asia with some oute with downy featherA feather is one of the epidermal growths that forms the distinctive outer covering, or plumage on a bird. They are the outstanding character that distinguishes the Class Aves from all others. Animal origins Feathers are the most complicated integumentarys on their bodies, and some even have flight feathers on their arms. It is therefore likely that Velociraptor bore feathers too, although no fossil evidence has yet confirmed this.

One of the more unusual features of these animals is that the tail is stiffened by elongated bones. Though sometimes referred to as ossified tendons, they are actually just incredibly lengthened versions of bones most amniotes use to articulate vertebrae together, termed prezygopophyses . The chevrons (bones that attach to the bottom of the tail vertebrae) were also highly elongated.

The name Velociraptor is well-known from the novel and movie Jurassic Park, but the dinosaurs portrayed there were actually modelled after a larger relative, Deinonychus. It is from this movie that the Velociraptor became popularly known as the raptor. Velociraptor itself was only about the size of a coyote. Although it is possible that the animals hunted in packs (as in the movie) there is no strong fossil evidence to support this idea.

Velociraptor mongoliensis (Osborn, 1924)

• Skull length : 249 mm.
• Total length : 2.7 m.
• Hip height : 0.5 m.
• Weight : 15 kilograms