Velociraptor (novel canon)

A giant, quiet bird of prey. - from Jurassic Park (novel)

Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period which inhabited what is now the Mongolia Chinaborder. Velociraptor was no bigger than a turkey and with its feathers it bore a very bird-like appearance. It had a long claw ("terrible claw") on its foot, 6.5 cm (2.6 in) long, which he probably used as a weapon. Velociraptor was the first raptor to be discovered (1922) and is still the most well known to paleontologists, with over a dozen recovered fossil skeletons—the most of any other raptor. Because the animal is so well known many other raptors, like Deinonychus, were considered to be species of the Velociraptor genus.

In the books, the raptor's made only roaring, snarling and hissing noises. Like in the novels there is also evidence that when prey was abundant they would hunt as a group. Though they did not always get along; one raptor fossil shows fatal damage to the brain that came from the jaws of another Velociraptor.

More real-life information: Velociraptor on Wikipedia.

Jurassic Park Series
Velociraptor mongoliensis played a major role as the antagonists in both novels of Michael Crichton. But the Velociraptors that are shown in the movies and the movie-based merchandise are much larger than the actual animal or the animals from the novels. These animals can better be seen as many misclassified Deinonychuses (see the Velociraptor antirrhopus article for information about those 'Velociraptors'), or Utahraptors, which were only just being discovered at the time.

Jurassic Park novel
Velociraptors are the first dinosaurs to escape. They had found a hidden place to nest and the number of raptors rose quickly. Before every one on the island left they had to check how many raptors there were. But they "migrated" away before they could and the island was destroyed. Before this, after the backup generator failed, the captive raptors escaped and some of the raptors, after chasing Ellie Sattler and Robert Muldoon, killing Henry Wu and Arnold, they found the children in the computer room. Grant came to rescue the children, and they ran through the computer room and the nursery and into the hatching lab. The kids ran into another room and Grant had them lock the door. It was here Grant found a toxic liquid chemical and injected it into some dinosaur eggs, then rolled them in front of the raptors. One raptor ate it and started dying from the poison, the second tore it open and killed it. It ate one of the poisoned egg and died of poisoning; the last heard his radio as Sattler was trying to talk to him, but Grant was able to inject the syringe directly in the tail with the toxin. The raptors in the book could also change the color of their skin, much like a chameleon and like the Carnotauruses in the second novel.

Classification
The Velociraptors of the first novel aren't misclassified Deinonychuses.
 * Because the yellow amber, which contained the Raptor-DNA, was found in China, the Velociraptor species of Jurassic Park are called 'mongoliensis'. This is in reality also the name of the type species of the Velociraptor genus.
 * Deinonychus didn't lived in Asia, so this Chinese amber could only contain raptor-DNA from Velociraptors mongoliensis, since Velociraptor only lived in China, Mongolia and Russia, which are Asian countries.
 * In the novel it is stated on page 343 that the Velociraptor was 1.80 meter (6 feet) long, that is the same size as real Velociraptors.

The Lost World novel
In the Jurassic Park novel, Velociraptor cared for their young and only killed an infant that had been raised in the nursery, probably because it smelled like human scent. In The Lost World novel their behavior is somewhat different; they don't care for the young or each other, apparently because, as relatively intelligent creatures, they were created but had no predecessors to learn proper pack behavior from. It seems social dynamics beyond hunting are beyond them. The prion plague DX that was running rampant on Isla Sorna may be the reason why these raptors behaved so differently. The raptors were first seen by Ian Malcolm, Richard Levine, and Jack Thorne, when they were in the High Hide. Malcolm talked to Thorne about how vicious they were. Then, while Howard King was walking through some tall grass, trying to escape from the island, he was ambushed and killed by a pack of Velociraptors. Later, while Kelly, Arby, and Levine were in the High Hide, together, the Velociraptor pack attacked them, yet again, using their sickle-shaped killing toe claws to climb up the High Hide, in order to reach their prey. Eddie Carr attempted to deter them by hitting them on the snouts with a metal bar, but one of the Raptors then tugged on the metal bar, causing Eddie to fall down to the ground, where the Pack then promptly killed him. Afterwards, Sarah Harding teamed up with Kelly, to tranquilize a Raptor, while riding on a motorcycle. Kelly held the rifle. After several missed shots, she finally managed to hit the raptor, knocking it, unconscious. Later on, when the team were in a Convenience Store, the Raptors attacked the Store, attempting to get at the humans. One of them stuck its head through, nearly killing Levine. However, Kelly then managed to save the day, by finding an air vent, for them to crawl through. They then followed through with Kelly's plan, and they escaped the island, and returned back home, on a ship.

Jurassic Park inspired games

 * In The Lost World: Jurassic Park video game, Velociraptor is a playable character. They appear as they do in the novels, the info screen of this level shows that these raptors are 2 meters long; which shows that they belong to the mongoliensis species. The raptor must escape an abandoned InGen facility into a forest were a forest fire rages, while facing numerous dinosaurs and hunters. However, their physical apearance still resembles the Deinonychus, which also appears in the game.


 * The Velociraptors that can be created in Jurassic Park III: Park Builder are 2 meters long. So these are real V. mongoliensis rather than misclassified Deinonychus. They resemble Jurassic Park III's Raptors. Ironically the Deinonychus can also be created.