Velociraptor (movie canon)

Velociraptor antirrhopus is the 3 to 4 meters long raptor species that appears in all Jurassic Park films and film based media. At the time that 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 Velociraptor, the "Raptors" from the three films were based more on Deinonychus than Velociraptor, probably because Deinonychus was much larger and thus more dangerous. Because the film makers haven't reclassified these creatures and still call them Velociraptors, many Jurassic Park fans refer to them as Velociraptor antirrhopus (the old classification). In reality, there is no real Palaeontologist that recognises this animal. Gregory S. Paul, famed Palaeoartist, first made the confusion (he is known for listing many Dinosaur species as being just one genus, such as regarding Tarbosaurus bataar as Tyrannosaurus bataar, something he has no evidence for other than his disbelief in them being different.

Real-life information about the antirrhopus species: Deinonychus at Wikipedia.

Size
Since these Velociraptors' from the films are so much bigger than Velociraptor mongoliensis (which were only about the size of average turkeys) it is suspected they actually were genetically altered Deinonychus called Velociraptor. 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.

Hunting
"They were instinctive hunters and never passed up a prey. Killed even when weren't hungry. Killed for the pleasure of kill. Were agile, tireless runners and incredible jumpers. Had lethal weapons on the four members; a strong punch with one of the forearms can lacerate a man. And had powerful jaws that ripped meat instead of biting it. Were a lot more intelligent than other dinosaurs and seemed to be natural cage breakers."

- Jurassic Park (novel)

Many raptors may have hunted in packs. The most well known evidence of this are the fossilized remains of a group of Deinonychus eating a Tenontosaurus. Grant's theory is that if you were to stand still in front of a raptor, the raptor would just look back, as if in a standoff. Then the attack would come, not from the raptor in front of you, but from the flanks by other raptors you wouldn't even know were there. The raptors would typically pounce on their prey and slash at the stomach with the retractable claw on the middle toe. An average distance a raptor could jump was around 10-15 ft high and about the same in length. They could run 60-70 mph at full sprint, so they could outrun most dinosaurs. In the real world they could only run at no more than 35-40 mph.

Raptors did not always get along, we see this in Jurassic Park and The Lost World when the raptors snap each other when they first enter the kitchen and again in The Lost World while Sarah makes her escape. Given that they are pack animals, this could just be their way of reinforcing the group pecking order

Raptors play on human emotion and set traps, using a human as bait. Another reference of an advanced attack method was employed from a lone male Velociraptor included: trailing the humans without them knowing and entering another way into the lab and remaining perfectly still, playing on an illusion, while waiting for one of the humans to get to close and using their curiosity of the tanks to get the best of them. It's also possible that raptors employed eye contact to distract human prey.

Intelligence
In, Alan Grant mentions that a Velociraptor's intelligence is the equivalent of modern primates and they are capable of creating advanced strategies and problem solving. Other things they're capable of are opening doors, digging, etc. The Velociraptor's brain was developed enough to let them work together to bring down prey, as fossil evidence has supported that they hunt in packs. In reality, raptors were not as smart as dolphins and whales but with the evidence of them hunting in packs, it is estimated that they were as smart as wolves or lions at the most, giving them problem-solving intelligence, but not advanced like a dolphin.

Communication
Similar to modern-day birds, velociraptors communicate with one another through vocal calls, although communication with one another of the raptors of the first two movies is far less as opposed to the ones in Jurassic Park III, which communicate more with each other. In JP a raptor is calling for her hunting partner, but there is no verbal communication while stalking Muldoon or in TLW while stalking the hunters in the long grass or attacking Malcolm, Sarah, and Kelly in the workers village. There is a lot of verbal communication in JP3 while raptors are seen "talking" to each other in what could be depicted as "Velociraptor language".

Interpretations about the Raptor Differences
The JPIII Velociraptors are so much different from those seen in the first two movies because the old raptor designs have been updated to fit with what we know about the animals (see Horner quote above). However, many Jurassic Park fans have been unwilling to accept that the raptors from the first two movies didn't exist as they were shown. They have searched for an explanation that allows both kinds of raptors to exist in the movie canon.

A popular explanation is that the raptors seen in JP3 are a different subspecies than those seen in the previous films. The JP3 raptors were the first Velociraptors that were created by InGen. That species is called Velociraptor antirrhopus sornaensis (because it was first seen on Isla Sorna). InGen most likely realized that it's intelligence and social structure would be making it too dangerous for park viewing. To emphasize the point more so, V. sornaensis (as seen in the movie) had a good understanding of the humans. Either that, or they are genetic mutants that were deemed too dangerous for the park, explaining their absence from Nublar.

InGen then did some more genetic manipulation to produce the V. nublarensis (called after Isla Nublar), realizing the animal was still dangerous, albeit much less than V. sornaensis. InGen, possibly already behind schedule from doing this, decided to introduce the animal with massive security precautions in place into the park on Isla Nublar. But some of the V. nublarensis are also shown to live in Isla Sorna, but living in the southeastern region of the island, while the V. sornaensis live in the northeastern part. It is unknown if the two species/packs ever come into contact or compete with each other, but it is likely they avoid each other.

The difference between the two animals not only are in the coloration, physical features, and appearance, but also their intelligence and social structure. V. nublarensis's social structure was relatively brutal in comparison to their Sorna counterparts, as we can see them snapping and attacking each other in both JP and TLW. They still communicated with each other, possibly by eye communication, like chimpanzees do, but it wasn't as complex or as effective as that of V. sornaensis. The raptors in JP3 communicated more with each other verbally and coordinated their attacks better than the raptors in the first two films. This is referenced by the acts of social behavior between one another in the two subspecies.

This, in addition to the brutality makes V. nublarensis's packs far less organized than V. sornaensis, and slightly scaled down in intelligence as the V. nublarensis does not take full advantage of their surroundings, as a male V. sornaensis did in the Embryonics Administration with playing on Amanda Kirby's "fascination" of what was in the embryonic tank. Apparently, nublarensis is larger and more brutal than sornaensis, yet not as deadly.

However, V. nublarensis has not been seen actually attacking each other, except in TLW when Sarah slides roof tiling so the raptor on the roof will fall onto another one. It is only then that they start attacking each other. The closest to fighting V. nublarensis got to in JP was snapping at each other.

A far less complicated explanation would be that V. nublarensis in JP are all female raptors and in TLW all males, and V. sornaensis in JPIII are both male and female. The skin and eyes of the female raptor from Jurassic Park III have the same colors as the raptors from the first movie. Only the shape of her snout is a bit altered. This would also explain the absence of V. sornaensis from Isla Nublar. It may also be that V. nublarensis are actually Deinonychus that had velociraptor DNA fill in it's gaps, which gave it raptor features, and that V. sornaensis are actually true velociraptors, V. mongoliensis, that just got the size of deinonychus and, by using deinonychus DNA to fill in it's gaps, lost their feathers, as the raptors in Jurassic Park III have a snout which more closely resembles this species than the raptors in the first two movies, who have more Deinonychus-shaped skulls. This would explain the more sophisticated co-ordination of the raptors in the third movie than in the previous two, as Velociraptor is usually thought to be the more intelligent of the two genera. Anthor one, or both, are species not found in the fossil record. It is possible that the raptors from Jurassic Park and The Lost World are Utahraptors as they're as big as the raptors mentioned by Robert Bakker in his book raptor red while the ones from the third movie were Deinonychus with a little bit of Velociraptor as they are closer in size to Deinonychus which was the size of a man. Their length in the third movie is the size of Deinonychus in real life.

Jurassic Park Franchise
Velociraptor antirrhopus is one of the most popular dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park Franchise. They appear in all three movies and all the video games and have a major role in them, they are often seen hunting in packs and as being highly intelligent.

Jurassic Park
At the dig site in Montana Alan Grant discovers a fossilized raptor hatchling. He classifies it as Velociraptor antirrhopus.

Jurassic Park film
''"They should all be destroyed." - Robert Muldoon''

Alan Grant discovers a pack of "Velociraptors" at his dig site in Montana. In reality Velociraptor lived in Asia, not America. But from the size of the skeletons (3 meters long, 2 meters high) and the size of their claws (6 inches) it is clear that these skeletons are remains of Deinonychuses. A kid called it a "Giant Turkey".

The Velociraptors were genetically recreated by InGen using DNA trapped in fossilized mosquitoes. They were bred on the island of Isla Sorna before being transported to Jurassic Park.

Initially, all the Raptors were engineered as female to prevent unauthorized breeding. Apparently, only one known shipment to the island came, with the Raptors being carried inside a large, maximum-security steel cage, and the loading process was a disaster. A large group of engineers and security, headed by Robert Muldoon, watched as the Raptors were being loaded into the pen, only for the creatures start an uprising in an attempt to escape. The animals were eventually quelled and loaded into their pen, but a worker died in the process when a prominent female attempted to drag him into the cage.

In the park, the Raptors were kept in a large pen with an electric fence, their food consisting of live cows via crane. Nonetheless, Muldoon remained cautious around the creatures, with InGen considering them a security hazard, considering their high intelligence and nasty disposition. Originally, eight Raptors were breed; one of them being the prominent female, that Muldoon named the Big One. Within days, the female took over the pack and had the other Raptors attack the fence to test it for weaknesses. When this failed, she killed five of the eight Raptors, but spared the lives of only two, solidifying her role as leader of the pack.

InGen shipped a new pack of five raptors, lead by the Scarred Raptor Leader, from Isla Sorna to replace the deceased ones, but had to be transferred to quarantine pens as they were too dangerous to be kept in the standard holding pens, where they, along with the Troodons, were kept under close watch by Laura Sorkin and her assistant David Banks. They later escaped and stalked the staff of the park left behind on the island and a mercenary team hired by InGen. One of the subordinates was killed by the ''T-rex. ''The Scarred Raptor Leader killed Oscar, a member of the mercenary team who scarred her and killed another subordinate earlier. The remaining subordinates then chased the remaining survivors untill they caught the scent of a Troodon nest in the room the suvivors were hiding in and then fled. It is unknown if any of the raptors survived the later Napalm bombing of Isla Nublar.

During Nedry's insurrection, the Raptor pen was, initially, left unharmed, but the power to the fence inevitably gave out, when the mainframe was reset by Arnold. The raptors then managed to bite their way out and patrolled the area to the electric bunker. Arnold eventually came through to turn the power back on, only to be killed and eaten inside the bunker by one of the Raptors, leaving only his arm. Ellie Sattler and Muldoon eventually came through the same way in an attempt to finish Arnold's work, walking into a trap set by two of the raptors. Fortunately, Muldoon saw through the raptor's ruse and held a gun on one of them while Ellie ran ahead into the bunker. Muldoon then attempted to hunt the Raptor in the bush, but he underestimated the creature's intelligence, and was ambushed by the alpha female, who had been using the other raptor as bait. Muldoon was killed. Meanwhile, Ellie managed to turn the power back on to the park, only to be attacked from behind by the third Raptor. Fortunately, she managed to escape with only a hurt foot.

Some time after, the three Raptors migrated to the visitor's center, where the alpha female and one other followed the scent of the kids, Lex and Tim, into the kitchen. After a brief hunt around kitchen, the alpha managed to find Lex, only to attack a metal cabinet that showed her reflection. The second raptor then chased Tim into the freezer, but slipped on the ice, as Tim escaped and locked the door behind him. The alpha, however, managed to regain consciousness and followed the children, along with Alan and Ellie to the computer room. After a brief struggle, Lex managed to fix the locks and shut the door on the Raptor. However, it broke through the glass and, when they climb into the vents. {C The third raptor broke free from the electric bunker and chased them to the front of the visitor's center, where it jumped on the sauropod skeleton, causing it to collapse as they climbed onto it. The humans attempted to escape, but are cornered by the alpha Raptor. The third raptor then took its opportunity and lunged for the humans, but is then seized out of the air by a Tyrannosaurus rex. While the others escaped, the Big One jumped on the rex's neck, only to slide into it's jaws and tossed violently into a decorative Tyrannosaurus rex model skeleton.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park


The second film takes place on Isla Sorna, where the raptors (called by Peter Ludlow and Robert Burke), with the other dinosaurs, were initially bred. However, some incident has allowed the creatures to roam free, and a glitch in their genetic code has allowed some of them to be born males, allowing the animals to breed. The raptors appeared with orange skin and tiger-like stripes and orange eyes. On the island, the freed raptors are seen as having focused their feeding grounds closer to the center of the island, with at least one pack claiming the area near the InGen Village, and even the facility itself, as their territory. This makes it especially dangerous for anyone attempting to contact the outside world, as the facility is, supposedly, the only site on the island with the necessary equipment.



Four years after the incident at the first park, two groups of people; a small research team hired by John Hammond, and an enormous strike force hired by Peter Ludlow become stranded on the island when attacks by the local animals destroy most of their equipment. Despite Ludlow's warnings, the team embarks towards the central facility. However, after an attack by a pair of local Tyrannosaurus, the team becomes unorganized and separated, and, upon nearing the facility, come across a field of tall grass that happens to be home to a pack of Velociraptors, who promptly ambush the team, killing a fairly large number of men, including Ajay Sidhu. Whether it is because they had eaten their fill or simply did not catch them in time, the raptors do not attack Hammond's team when they come through the grass, and Nick manages to make it into the facility and call for help. But when Malcolm, Sarah, and Kelly enter the facility to find him, they are set upon by three raptors. While Ian distracts one the other two chase Sarah and Kelly inside the facility. Eventually, Ian evades the raptor and runs into the facility and is cornered by one of the animals, but Kelly uses her gymnastic abilities to knock the raptor out of the window, where it is impaled and dies. As the Malcolms escape, Sarah tries to get out through the window, but is followed by the second raptor and cornered by the third below. However, she manages to knock the raptor off the roof, causing it to fall on the third, provoking a violent fight between the two. She then joins up with the Malcolms and Nick and together they escape the island on a chopper.

Jurassic Park III
In, the raptors were much more birdlike, with males having feather quills on the back of their heads, barring the alpha female. They were also brightly colored and the males had small, red eyes, whereas the females have yellow eyes. The JPIII Velociraptors work together as a highly-communicable pack as there is no brutality in their social structure. At the start of the film, before Grant attends to the island, Billy creates a model "Velociraptor Resonation Chamber", a bony structure that allows the Velociraptors a complex language.

The reasons for these changes in the look and behaviour of the raptors is explained by Jack Horner in the bonus feature The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III:

"Science continues to progress and every year we discover new things. And now we have pretty good skulls of Velociraptor and we know that it looks different. So the skull has actually been changed to fit what we know about the animal. And we also recently have found evidence that Velociraptors had feathers. So we incorporated that in the new look of the Velociraptor.

"I really have been working through the whole process to get as many accurate things into the movie as possible. I've done a lot of CAT scan work on dinosaur skulls so we know that some dinosaurs actually could vocalize. So we've gotten some of that research into this movie."

The social structure is - from what we saw - mostly obeyed by all raptors. It should be noted though that when Grant introduced the call box though a male raptor did break rank, possibly confused by the noise coming from the human, but the alpha female reminded it to get back into rank and the Raptor did. It's likely that if it had been a JP-or TLW- Velociraptor, it would've not only attacked, but the other raptor's attention would be focused on killing Grant, Amanda, Eric, and Paul for food instead of egg retrieval. Ultimately though from the JPIII Velociraptor there was no "attacking" between each other whatsoever (as in JP and TLW) as it was only complex communication.

These understandings were in the fact that a lone male was sent to hunt the group of humans in JPIII and used it's environment perhaps purposely hiding behind the tank and staying perfectly still to scare Amanda Kirby.

In the genetics admissions lab, a male is seen hiding its head behind one of the incubator machines. As Amanda Kirby takes a closer look, it's eye moves and it lunges out from behind the glass. It tries to bite Amanda, but is too big to fit through the machines. In itself, this implies that JPIII-raptors are very understanding of human emotions of "curiosity". The raptor finds another way and chases the survivors, eventually trapping them in a maze of dinosaur cages. Billy Brennan and Amanda trap the raptor in one of the cages and it lets out a screeching, birdlike call. Dr. Alan Grant is amazed by it calling for help. Eventually, the raptor gets out and calls to its packmates. In the jungle, other raptors hear the one from the building and answer back. During the stampede of Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus, two males are seen running at speeds up to 50-60 mph. In the jungle, a female stabs its retractable claw in Udesky's back and the pack uses him as bait to lure Billy, Amanda, and Paul Kirby. The raptors again make another play on human emotions when it comes to compassion, humans not wanting to leave another behind with Udesky. When the trap fails, one of the raptors kills Udesky by snapping his neck.

{C Meanwhile, after being split from the others, Dr. Grant sees the alpha female and male "talking" to each other. He wonders what they are saying, or what they are looking for. Then he is cornered by three males and the alpha female. As the pack was closing in on him, Eric Kirby throws gas grenades, which drive the raptors away. {C {C They reappear near the end of the film, wanting their eggs that Billy took earlier, which is the explanation for their earlier attack. They surround the survivors as they get down on their knees. The alpha female walks slowly up to Amanda and sniffs around her, thinking she stole the eggs. Dr. Grant opens Billy's bag and hands both eggs to Amanda who places them in the sand gently. Grant then takes out the resonating chamber Billy gave him and blows through it to confuse the raptors. He then imitates their cry for help. One of the males attempts to attack him, but is stopped and reminded by the alpha female to get back into rank. She then hears helicopters coming and caws each male a command. While they take off into the jungle, the alpha male stays with her. The female picks up the first egg and the male picks up the second. They then catch up with the pack. It is thought that the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park were not good parents, but Jurassic Park III proves that the raptors follow the group to get their eggs back. It is unknown if the raptors in the other movies did the same, though this is unlikely.

Jurassic Park inspired games
They appear in almost all games (while Velociraptors appear in all games not all of them were misclassified Deinonychus). Below is a list of notable games featuring them: {C thumb|300px|right
 * Velociraptor is featured in the arcade version of Jurassic Park. The player will encounter Velociraptors in Area One, Three, and Four. They will try to attack you, but are very easy to kill.
 * The raptors in Chaos Island: The Lost World are fast and deadly. They can kill many enemies in packs, but they are easily killed.
 * In the NES game Jurassic Park raptors are the only dinosaur that don't walk through doorways. They slow down when they start to corner you.
 * The raptor is a playable character in the SEGA game Jurassic Park.
 * In Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues the raptor is an enemy. They will often leap at the player. Killing them will not decrease dinosaur stock amount.
 * In Jurassic Park Dinosaur Battles they are small, fast and agile fighters. Reliable against herbivores and small predators.
 * Raptors are enemies in a building in Jurassic Park Interactive.
 * In Jurassic Park: Trespasser the raptors are a constant threat.
 * Velociraptor is an enemy in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Game Boy game).
 * Velociraptor is an enemy in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (SEGA Genesis Game).
 * The Velociraptor is a playable character in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (video game). The intro film reveals that this Velociraptor is only 2 meters long, indicating that this isn't a misclassified Deinonychus but a realistic Velociraptor mongoliensis.
 * A male and female raptor can be encountered in the arcade game The Lost World: Jurassic Park. These raptors are encountered in all levels. Also, there are green raptors which can only be killed if shot in the head, and rarely "alpha raptors" that could call more raptors. If it is killed the raptors will flee from the player.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Dino Defender male raptors are encountered on all levels.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Island Attack the player is confronted by a raptor.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Park Builder Velociraptor, both the male and female version from JPIII, can be created. Ironically, so too can Deinonychus. However, the Velociraptors are 2 meters long in the game, making them Velociraptor mongoliensis. However, the Deinonychus do not resemble the raptors from the third movie, although they do look like the raptors from the first two films.
 * Velociraptor can be encountered in the arcade game Jurassic Park III.
 * Raptors are an enemy in Jurassic Park III: Danger Zone!.
 * Velociraptor is the fourth dinosaur the player encounters in Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor.
 * Velociraptor is featured in Jurassic Park: Explorer.
 * In Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis they are grey with black spots, like the female JP3 raptor. They lunge onto the prey and bite them numerous times. If they attack larger prey, like a Torosaurus they lunge onto it it and claw it to death. They can also climb over fences with ease if the fence is lower than medium or is damaged. If the game is modified in the PC, the raptors can have fights with Tyrannosaurus rex. It would take six raptors to kill the carnivore. Despite the fact that these Velociraptors are listed at 3 metres in length, the fact that their fossils can be excavated in the Flaming Cliffs formation indicates that they are V. mongoliensis. The raptors are known to rampage a lot more often if there are multiple members of a pack and the rampaging one would kill fellow raptors which could be a reference to The Big One.
 * The raptors were planned to appear in Jurassic Park: Survival.
 * Velociraptors appeared in Jurassic Park: The Game. Their models for the game are based off their appearance in the first Jurassic Park movie. They serves as the main enemy during chapter three.

Theme parks
The raptors appeared near the end of Jurassic Park: River Adventure, where they are shown to have recently escaped, and are now tearing up the area. During Universal's Annual Halloween Horror Nights which took place at Islands of Adventure for the first time in 2002, the Jurassic Park island became JP: Extinction, and of course, with all the dinosaurs unleashed out of their paddocks, there were several scareactors dressed up as raptors, hiding in the bushes, waiting to scare the unsuspecting tourists.

Trivia

 * Their appearance served as an inspiration to the velociraptors in the unrelated video game, Dino Crisis.
 * Although largely based on Deinonychus, they were as tall as Achillobator (both dinosaurs were 6 feet tall and both were dromaeosaurs, although Achillobator was much bigger, being 16 feet long).
 * The velociraptors in the Redemption series adapts feathers; suggesting that they could be real mongoliensis raptors instead of misclassified Deinonychus.
 * In Jurassic Park: The Game, one of the Velociraptors have an unusual scar on its face. The scar was from Oscar while using his knife in an attempt to kill the Velociraptor.
 * When Gerry and Jess Harding enter the Visitor Center a velociraptor foot was shown on the floor. It was possibly from the Big One since it was near the T-Rex model skeleton.
 * Velociraptor is the only dinosaur that managed to kill a Dilophosaurus.