Velociraptor Facts for Kids
Forget the movies. The real Velociraptor was the size of a turkey, wore feathers like a bird and lived among desert sand dunes.
What was the real Velociraptor like?
Velociraptor was a small, fast, meat-eating dinosaur. It was about 2 metres long from nose to tail, but most of that was tail. It stood only about knee-high to a grown-up and weighed around 15 kilograms, about as much as a medium-sized dog.
It lived about 75 to 71 million years ago in the sand dunes of what is now Mongolia and northern China. Its name means “swift thief”. And here is the big surprise: it was covered in feathers.
📏 Movie raptor vs real raptor
The raptors in films are much bigger than the real Velociraptor. Here is roughly how tall each one stands.
- A movie “raptor”as tall as a grown-up
- A 7-year-oldabout 1.2 m
- The real Velociraptorknee-high to a grown-up
The person-sized raptors in films look more like a bigger cousin called Deinonychus.
How we know it had feathers
In 2007, scientists looked closely at a Velociraptor forearm bone and found a row of little bumps called quill knobs. On a bird’s arm today, quill knobs are exactly where the big wing feathers attach.
So even though no feathers were preserved, the bones show where they grew. Velociraptor could not fly, but it had feathered arms like a bird. Find out which other animals had feathers in did dinosaurs have feathers.
A raptor’s toolkit
- One big curved sickle claw on each foot. It was held up off the ground to keep it sharp, which is why raptor footprints show only two toes.
- The claw pinned prey down, like an eagle’s talon. Scientists now think it did not slash.
- Small, curved teeth with tiny serrations on the back edge, for gripping.
- A stiff tail, braced by thin rods of bone, worked as a balance pole for quick turns.
Did Velociraptors hunt in packs?
In films, raptors always hunt in clever packs. In real life, nobody knows. The idea came from fossils of Deinonychus, not Velociraptor, and newer studies of Deinonychus teeth suggest the young ate different food from the adults, which is not how pack hunters like wolves live.
Some fossil footprints in China show six raptor-like dinosaurs walking side by side in the same direction, so some of them may have travelled together. But walking together is not the same as hunting together. The most famous Velociraptor fossil of all shows just one raptor on its own.
Fun Velociraptor Facts
It lived in a desert.
Velociraptor’s home was a land of sand dunes. Some were buried so fast by sliding sand that their skeletons came out of the ground whole.
It has only been found in Mongolia and northern China.
The first one was dug up in the Gobi Desert in 1923 and named a year later.
It may have been active at dusk.
A ring of bone inside its eye looks like those of animals that see well in dim light. Not every scientist agrees, so this one is still being argued about.
Its cousins laid coloured eggs.
No Velociraptor nest has been found, but close relatives laid long eggs and sat on their nests like birds. Some laid blue-green eggs.
Its closest living relatives are birds.
Birds are living dinosaurs. A Velociraptor was more closely related to a sparrow than to a crocodile.
Science words to know
- Quill knobs
- Little bumps on a bone where big feathers attached.
- Sickle claw
- A big, curved claw shaped like a farmer’s sickle.
- Predator
- An animal that hunts other animals for food.
- Trackway
- A line of fossil footprints made by an animal as it walked.
Quick quiz!
0 / 31. About how big was a real Velociraptor?
2. What proves Velociraptor had feathers?
3. What did the big sickle claw do?
Questions kids ask
How big was a Velociraptor?
About 2 metres long including its long tail, about half a metre tall at the hip, and around 15 kilograms. That is roughly turkey-sized.
Did Velociraptor have feathers?
Yes. Quill knobs on a fossil forearm show where big feathers attached, just like on a bird’s wing.
Is the raptor in Jurassic Park a real Velociraptor?
Not really. The movie raptors are much bigger and scaly. Their size matches a cousin called Deinonychus, and real Velociraptors had feathers.
Where did Velociraptor live?
In the deserts of what is now Mongolia and northern China, about 75 to 71 million years ago.
Raptor Pair
Guide two feathered raptors through the dunes, working together to open gates and move stones. Nobody knows if real Velociraptors teamed up; this game imagines what it might have looked like.
✔ The whole Dinosaur Wing is free to play
No ads, ever · Plays offline · Made for young kids and adults
