Deinonychus

"The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you."

- Dr. Alan Grant

Deinonychus was a  of theropod dinosaur. 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 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. This supposition is supported by the fact that the website for Jurassic Park: The Game states that "Velociraptor" is from 115-108 million years ago, which is the time range of 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
Do not use images from Jurassica.net Without permission, thank you.
 * In The Lost World: Jurassic Park video game Deinonychus is an enemy. It bears a resemblance to the Deinonychus2142.jpgVelociraptor mongoliensis that appeared in the game as well. Oddly, it's not bigger than the Velociraptor.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Park Builder Deinonychus is a carnivore that can be recreated from paleo-DNA. Ironically the Velociraptor can also be created.


 * It was planned to appear in JPOG but was scrapped, possibly in favor of the Velociraptor. However, since Deinonychus is virtually identical to Jurassic Park's depiction of Velociraptor, you can create one by simply copying and re-naming the Velociraptor file.

Toylines
There had initially been plans to produce a Deinonychus toy for The Lost World: Jurassic Park: Series 1. It was to be a repaint of the Jurassic Park: Series 1 Velociraptor (thus possibly making it another Velociraptor repaint).