Deinonychus

"The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you." - Dr. Alan Grant

Deinonychus was a Raptor genus of theropod Dinosaurus. It lived in U.S. states of Montana, Wyoming, and Oklahoma during the Cretaceous period. It had much in common with Velociraptor but it was much larger, 3.4 meter (11 ft) long.

More real-life information - Deinonychus at Wikipedia

Classification
At the time Michael Crichton wrote the first novel Deinonychus was included in the Velociraptor genus. The type-species Deinonychus antirrhopus was sometimes called Velociraptor antirrhopus. This reclassification is mentioned by Alan Grant in the first novel:

"Although Deinonychus is now considered one of the Velociraptors..."

Because Deinonychus was classified as a Velociraptor the raptors from the three films were based more on Deinonychus than Velociraptor, probably because Deinonychus was much larger and thus more dangerous. Since these 'Velociraptors' from the films are so much bigger than the real animal it is suspected they actually were genetically altered Deinonychus called Velociraptors. Either that or that gene splicing with their larger relative Deinonychus occurred, causing them to grow much larger and look more like Deinonychus; in which case they are more Deinonychuses with some Velociraptor characteristics than the other way.

Jurassic Park Series
Raptors named Deinonychus appear in a couple of Jurassic Park inspired games. Raptors named 'Velociraptors' are most likely also Deinonychus.

Jurassic Park novel
At the dig site in Montana Alan Grant discovers a fossilized raptor hatchling. He classifies it as Velociraptor antirrhopus, which is in modern insight a Deinonychus species.

Jurassic Park inspired games

 * In The Lost World: Jurassic Park video game Deinonychus is an enemy.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Park Builder Deinonychus is a carnivore that can be recreated from paleo-DNA.


 * It was planned to appear in JPOG but was scrapped.