The Jurassic Park movies are some of the most beloved movies of all time. Of course they are, dinosaurs are awesome!
As you know, we love dinosaurs at Paultons Park so much that we built a dedicated Jurassic themed park area called Lost Kingdom. At Lost Kingdom you’ll find an awesome prehistoric landscape packed full of dinosaurs and dino themed rides and attractions for you and your family to enjoy.
The Jurassic Park dinosaurs are iconic. Think of the sheer size and speed of that terrifying Jurassic Park T-Rex or the cunning and highly intelligent Jurassic Park velociraptors who stole every single scene they were in.
It may come as a surprise to you then that the Jurassic Park dinosaurs were not accurate depictions of what the dinosaurs were really like and some of them (the velociraptors in particular) were deliberately different. Despite these inaccuracies, dinosaur fans continue to love and celebrate these movies.
In this article, we’ll be looking at facts about the awesome Jurassic Park Raptors and sharing information that only the most dedicated dino fans could possibly know.
Velociraptors were never alive in the Jurassic Period!
Despite being featured heavily in the Jurassic Park franchise, velociraptors didn’t actually exist during the Jurassic period at all.
In reality, Velociraptors lived during the late Cretaceous Period between 74 and 70 million years ago. The Jurassic period started 145 million years ago and goes all the way back to about 200 million years ago.
Real velociraptors were about the size of a turkey!
The Jurassic Park Velociraptors are actually much bigger than real life velociraptors, which are only about the weight of a turkey.
Velociraptors are thought to only weigh around 7-15 kg and were around 2 metres in length (including their tails!). Some scientists believe that a velociraptor may have weighed up to 45kg, making them comparable to a wolf or coyote.
The Jurassic Park Velociraptors are actually based on ANOTHER dinosaur!!
That dinosaur is the Deinonychus. A Deinonychus is classified as a similar dinosaur to velociraptor, but they are not the same genus.
The Jurassic Park Universe follows an unusual taxonomy of dinosaurs that classified the Deinonychus as a type of Velociraptor. This is why the Deinonychus in the movies and books are called Velociraptors.
Author Michael Crichton sized up the velociraptors in Jurassic Park!
The first person to increase the size of the Jurassic Park velociraptors was actually the author of the book the films were based on, Michael Crichton. He made the decision to model the velociraptors on the larger Deinonychus for unknown reasons.
Unimpressed by the size of the Deinonychus, movie director Steven Spielberg decided to size up the velociraptors even more – making them at least double the size of their real life counterparts.
Both Velociraptors and Deinonychuses were feathered!
Real life Velociraptors and Deinonychuses were both dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Dromaeosaurid dinosaurs are feathered theropods.
Jurassic Park Velociraptors do not have feathers and are portrayed with various colourings and skin patterns throughout the franchise.
Jurassic Park Velociraptors were discovered in America.
In the fictional Jurassic Park universe, the velociraptor remains were found in dig sites in North America.
Real fossilised velociraptor remains have only ever been discovered in Asia!
We don’t know if raptors really hunted in packs
The velociraptors shown throughout the Jurassic Park movies always lived and hunted in packs. There is no evidence that shows real velociraptors did this, however there is a theory that some scientists believe, that…
Jurassic Park Raptors were led by females.
The packs in the movies were always led by female velociraptors such as ‘The Big One’ in the first movie, the brightly coloured female in the third movie, and ‘Blue’ in the Jurassic World trilogy (despite the fact that Owen is their Alpha, Blue is the Beta and the highest ranking velociraptor of the pack).
There isn’t any evidence that real world velociraptors were matriarchal but it’s a pretty cool idea!
The Jurassic Park velociraptors were voiced by turtles!
Sound designer for the Jurassic Park movies, Gary Rydstrom, confirmed that the Jurassic Park velociraptor sounds were recordings of a variety of other animals including dogs, dolphins, geese and walrus.
The famous barking sound the Jurassic Park velociraptors make to communicate with one another are actually the recorded sounds of turtles mating!
What do you think of the Jurassic Park Velociraptors?
As we love dinosaurs so much, we’ve been gripped by the evolution of the Jurassic Park velociraptors throughout the franchise. These are undoubtedly some of the franchise’s best dinosaurs.
Throughout the Jurassic Park movies we’ve seen them develop from the cunning and villainous velociraptors in the original Jurassic Park movie to the affectionate and protective Blue in the Jurassic World movies who is capable of bonding with humans. A fantastic and fascinating journey!
If you love Velociraptors as much as us, you should come and ride the Velociraptor Coaster at Lost Kingdom, where you can speed around the track with the motion and agility of a raptor.
