Deinonychus facts

Deinonychus was one of the cleverest dinosaurs when comparing its brain size to the size of its body.

We no longer see dinosaurs as the same oafish, tail-dragging monsters that trudged through King Kong Some odd-looking remains were discovered on a fossil-hunting trip through Montana in Yale paleontologist John Ostrom quickly deduced that these were the bones of a carnivorous dinosaur that belonged to the theropod suborder. Instead, its light frame, counterbalancing tail, and huge, hooked claws betrayed an active lifestyle. Perhaps it was even warm-blooded. Today, virtually all paleontologists recognize that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs. Back in , however, this notion seemed outdated.

Deinonychus facts

It's not nearly as well-known as its Asian cousin, Velociraptor, which it played in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World , but Deinonychus is far more influential among paleontologists--and its numerous fossils have shed valuable light on the appearance and behavior of raptor dinosaurs. Below, you'll discover 10 fascinating Deinonychus facts. The name Deinonychus pronounced die-NON-ih-kuss references the single, large, curving claws on each of this dinosaur's hind feet, a diagnostic trait that it shared with its fellow raptors of the middle to late Cretaceous period. The "deino" in Deinonychus, by the way, is the same Greek root as the "dino" in dinosaur, and is also shared by such prehistoric reptiles as Deinosuchus and Deinocheirus. In the late 's and early 's, the American paleontologist John H. Ostrom remarked on the similarity of Deinonychus to modern birds--and he was the first paleontologist to broach the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. What seemed like a wacky theory a few decades ago is today accepted as fact by most of the scientific community, and has been heavily promoted over the last few decades by among others Ostrom's disciple, Robert Bakker. Today, paleontologists believe that most theropod dinosaurs including raptors and tyrannosaurs sported feathers at some stage in their life cycles. To date, no direct evidence has been adduced for Deinonychus having feathers, but the proven existence of other feathered raptors such as Velociraptor implies that this larger North American raptor must have looked at least a little bit like Big Bird--if not when it was fully grown, then at least when it was a juvenile. Ironically, the famous American fossil hunter Barnum Brown discovered the type specimen of Deinonychus while he was on the prowl in Montana for an entirely different dinosaur, the hadrosaur , or duck-billed dinosaur, Tenontosaurus about which more in slide 8. Brown didn't seem all that interested in the smaller, less headline-worthy raptor he had serendipitously excavated, and provisionally named it "Daptosaurus" before forgetting about it entirely. Paleontologists are still trying to figure out exactly how raptors wielded their hind claws, but it's a sure bet that these razor-sharp implements had some kind of offensive function in addition to, conceivably, helping their owners climb trees when they were being pursued by larger theropods, or impressing the opposite sex during mating season.

Remember those scary, man-sized, pack-hunting Velociraptors from the first Jurassic Park movie, deinonychus facts, and their beefed-up military counterparts in Jurassic World?

Join our community of di-know-it-alls and support our show on Patreon. Image by Emily Willoughby, via Wikimedia Commons. Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time include Spinosaurus, Sauroplites, and Titanosaurs. Deinonychus was first discovered by Grant E. Meyer and John H. Ostrom in Montana in , and since then, other Denionychus fossils have been discovered in Utah and Wyoming. Here are five interesting facts about Deinonychus.

Carnivore , Early Cretaceous , Theropod. Regan Douglas. October 20, In the grand tapestry of prehistoric life, few creatures capture our imagination quite like Deinonychus. Its unique combination of physical attributes and behavioral traits paints a vivid picture of a world long lost to time. The Deinonychus is a testament to the power of evolution, a creature perfectly adapted to its environment and its role within it.

Deinonychus facts

This dinosaur was a theropod, a group of bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs that included famous species like Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. Deinonychus was about 11 feet long and weighed around to pounds. One of the most distinctive features of Deinonychus was its sharp, sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of its hind feet. This claw could reach up to 6 inches long and was used to tear into prey. Deinonychus also had a long, curved, flexible neck, sharp teeth, and a relatively large brain, which suggests that it was an intelligent and agile predator. Fossil evidence suggests that Deinonychus hunted in packs, working together to take down larger prey. This was a behavior previously thought to be unique to Velociraptor, which lived millions of years later and in a different part of the world. Deinonychus is an important dinosaur in the study of theropod evolution and behavior. It was one of the first dinosaurs to show evidence of pack hunting, which has since been found in other species.

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A solitary Deinonychus could not kill an adult tenontosaur, suggesting that pack hunting is possible. They were feathered dinosaurs. Even after all Ostrom's work, several small blocks of lime-encased material remained unprepared in storage at the American Museum. Assuming that a Deinonychus actually laid this egg, the position of the ribs implies that one of its parents died while brooding on it like a hen. Teeth discovered associated with Tenontosaurus specimens imply they were hunted, or at least scavenged upon, by Deinonychus. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. For starters, the Old World dinosaur was only about 6 feet long and had a fairly narrow snout. No skin impressions have ever been found in association with fossils of Deinonychus. More significantly, a large number of previously unnoticed fossilized eggshells were discovered in the rock matrix that had surrounded the original Deinonychus specimen. Sign up for our free newsletter and get a mini audiobook, full of dinosaur stories! Copy Link. The ratio is actually larger in smaller individuals than in larger ones. See also: Timeline Category. August 15,

This species, which could grow up to 3. Fossils have been recovered from the U.

Well, those dinosaurs were really modeled on Deinonychus, a name that these films' producers presumably considered too hard for audiences to pronounce. A solitary Deinonychus could not kill an adult tenontosaur, suggesting that pack hunting is possible. It had three claws on its 'hands' and a large talon on the back legs. A recent study used a Deinonychus skull for their estimate and calculated Newtons. The team leader, paleontologist Barnum Brown , was primarily concerned with excavating and preparing the remains of the ornithopod dinosaur Tenontosaurus , but in his field report from the dig site to the American Museum of Natural History , he reported the discovery of a small carnivorous dinosaur close to a Tenontosaurus skeleton, "but encased in lime difficult to prepare. Image by Emily Willoughby, via Wikimedia Commons. Additional Deinonychus skull material and closely related species found with good three-dimensional preservation [31] show that the palate was more vaulted than Ostrom thought, making the snout far narrower, while the jugals flared broadly, giving greater stereoscopic vision. Strauss, Bob. Bite force estimates for Deinonychus were first produced in , based on reconstructed jaw musculature. OCLC Retrieved July 7, Neuquenraptor Ornithodesmus? Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. The skull of Deinonychus was different from that of Velociraptor , however, in that it had a more robust skull roof, like that of Dromaeosaurus , and did not have the depressed nasals of Velociraptor.