Re: Raptors

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

Dwight Stewart wrote:

> On the same "raptorish" thread :-): was Utahraptor known at the time that
> JP1 was made?

Yes and no. <g>  In the original novel, Crichton used _Velociraptor_ as the
little nasty dinosaurs, and made them proper size for _Deinonychus_, about the
size of a large wolf.  For the movie, Spielberg decided wolf-size dinosaurs
weren't menacing enough, so he almost doubled their size, to the man-high
versions seen in the movie.  That was pure artistic license -- at that time, no
dromaeosaurs were known that were that large.  But during filming, _Utahraptor_
was discovered and published, a neat case of life imitating art.


> And, speaking of Dromaeosaurs, does anyone have a good
> mechanical model of how fast they could run.  50-60 MPHs sounds high to me
> for an animal with legs like theirs.

There are probably some analyses of this somewhere, but I don't know where or
what they say.  Maybe someone else here can help with that.

-- Jon W.