Episode 2369
Velociraptor
Mon, 2023-Oct-30 00:04 UTC
Length - 2:26
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Monday, 30 October 2023 is Velociraptor.
Velociraptor (; lit. 'swift thief') is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis, named and described in 1924. Fossils of this species have been discovered in the Djadochta Formation, Mongolia. A second species, V. osmolskae, was named in 2008 for skull material from the Bayan Mandahu Formation, China.
Smaller than other dromaeosaurids like Deinonychus and Achillobator, Velociraptor was about 1.5–2.07 m (4.9–6.8 ft) long with a body mass around 14.1–19.7 kg (31–43 lb). It nevertheless shared many of the same anatomical features. It was a bipedal, feathered carnivore with a long tail and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot, which is thought to have been used to tackle and restrain prey. Velociraptor can be distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout.
Velociraptor (commonly referred to as "raptor") is one of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public due to its prominent role in the Jurassic Park films. In real life, however, Velociraptor was roughly the size of a turkey, considerably smaller than the approximately 2 m (6.6 ft) tall and 90 kg (200 lb) reptiles seen in the novels and films (which were based on members of the related genus Deinonychus). Today, Velociraptor is well known to paleontologists, with over a dozen described fossil skeletons. One particularly famous specimen preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:04 UTC on Monday, 30 October 2023.
For the full current version of the article, see Velociraptor on Wikipedia.
This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Until next time, I'm Matthew Standard.
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