WEBVTT

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We all know that silhouette, that six foot tall

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pack hunting, you know, that door opening monster

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from the movies. It's arguably the most famous

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dinosaur villain in pop culture history. But

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I've been digging through the source material

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we pulled for today, and we've got everything

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from Gobi Desert expedition logs to biomechanics

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labs. And the creature in the fossil record is

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almost unrecognizable. It really is. It's a case

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of mistaken identity on a... just a massive scale

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yeah if you met the real animal in a dark alley

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or more accurately a dark sand dune you wouldn't

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be looking up at a man -sized lizard. No. You'd

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be looking down at something that looks like

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a very angry, very lethal bird. And that's really

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the mission for this deep dive, right? We're

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not just debunking a movie. We want to reconstruct

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the actual organism, Velociraptor, from the ground

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up. Exactly. From the first find in 1923 to studies

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from just last year. Okay, so let's start with

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the name. It sounds fast. It sounds dangerous.

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Velociraptor. And it's both. The name is pure

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Latin. You have Velox, which means swift, and

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raptor, which means robber or plunderer. The

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swift thief. The swift thief. It's perfect. It

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is a great name. But I was reading through the

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history, and we almost didn't get it. The guy

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who named it, Henry Fairfield Osborne, he had

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another idea first. That's right, yeah. In a

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popular press article, before the official paper

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came out in 1924, he actually called it Oviraptor

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Jedoshtari. Oviraptor? That sounds way too close

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to Oviraptor, the egg thief. It does. It just

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doesn't have the same punch, does it? Not at

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all. I'm glad he changed his mind. Me too. Fortunately,

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by the time the formal description was published,

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he'd settled on Velociraptor mongoliensis. And

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that's the type species, the one from the Jedokta

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formation in Mongolia. And to be clear, when

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we say Velociraptor, we're pretty much always

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talking about V. mongoliensis. But you mentioned

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there's a second species. Yes. Very briefly,

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Velociraptor osmolska. It was described much

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later, in 2008, from material found over in China.

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It's very similar, but you see some distinct

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differences in the upper jawbone, the maxilla.

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So the genus was a little more diverse than just

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one animal. A little, yeah. But for our reconstruction

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today, mongoliansis is our gold standard. We

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just have so much more fossil evidence for it.

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Okay, so I've got the swift thief. Now let's

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tackle the elephant, or I guess the giant lizard

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in the room, the size. The movie version is looking

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a person right in the eye. But looking at these

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measurements, that's just physically impossible,

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isn't it? It was a complete fabrication. The

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real animal was. Yeah. It was small. We're talking

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about a creature that was maybe, what, 1 .5 to

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2 meters long total. See, 2 meters sounds long,

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though. That's over 6 feet. It is. But you have

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to account for the tail. The tail makes up a

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huge portion of that length. It's like a balancing

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rod. Oh, okay. So in terms of height, what you

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would actually see standing next to it, it was

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only about half a meter high at the hip. Half

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a meter. So knee height on me. Knee height, exactly.

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We're talking about something the size of a large

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turkey. A turkey. Or maybe a coyote if you want

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a mammal comparison, but way lighter. The weight

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estimates put it somewhere between 14 and 19

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kilograms. Wait, wait. 14 to 19 kilos. That's

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like 30 to 40 pounds. 30 to 40 pounds, yeah.

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My golden retriever is 70 pounds. You're telling

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me the ultimate movie killing machine is half

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the size of my dog. A very, uh... Very lightweight,

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very agile dog armed with serrated teeth and,

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you know, those giant sickle claws. But yes,

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the mass is small. It's built for speed and precision,

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not brute force. So how did we get from a 30

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-pound knee -high predator to the monster in

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the movies? I get Hollywood exaggerates, but

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this feels like they just invented a whole new

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animal. Well, that's because... In a way, they

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did. Or rather, the author of the book did. Michael

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Crichton. Michael Crichton. This is a fascinating

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story. It all comes down to a paleontologist

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named John Ostrom and his work on a different

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dinosaur, Deinonychus. Deinonychus, that's the

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North American cousin, right? Terrible claw.

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Correct. And Deinonychus was discovered in the

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60s. It was bigger, it was meaner, and it matched

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the size of the movie Raptors almost perfectly.

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And Crichton knew about this. He met with Ostrom

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several times while he was writing the novel.

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He basically took De Nonicus, the size, the aggression,

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the pack dynamics, and used it as his model.

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But he didn't use the name. No. He just thought

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Velociraptor sounded, and I quote, more dramatic.

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That's amazing. So he just, he stole the stats

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of one dinosaur and slapped a cooler name on

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it. Pretty much. And the funny thing is, just

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as they were filming the movie, paleontologists

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uncovered an even bigger raptor. Oh, I see the

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note here. Utahraptor. Utahraptor. Which is huge.

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Even bigger than the movie Monsters. One of the

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special effects artists has this famous quote

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where she said, we built it and then they discovered

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it. So nature caught up to Hollywood. In a way,

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yeah. But the damage was done. The pop culture

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image was set. Okay, so the size is wrong. The

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name is technically borrowed. And then there's

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the look. The movies gave us these scaly reptilian

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things. But there's the 2007 study here by Alan

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Turner that says that's... That's just completely

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wrong too. Oh, it's definitively wrong. There's

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no debate on this one. Oh. Turner and his team

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were examining the ulna. That's one of the forearm

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bones of a Velociraptor specimen. Okay. And they

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found quill knobs. Explain what a quill knob

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actually is. Like what are we seeing on the bone?

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So in a modern bird, the big flight feather is

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on the wing. are anchored to the bone by ligaments,

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and these ligaments create little bumps or knobs

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on the surface of the bone. Attachment points.

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Exactly. Finding these on a dinosaur fossil is

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the smoking gun. It means Velociraptor had large,

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complex, veined feathers on its arms. It had

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wings. Well, you just said it was 40 pounds with

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short arms. It couldn't fly, surely. Oh, absolutely

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not. The biomechanics just don't work. The arms

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are way too short to generate the lift it would

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need. See, this is where I get a little stuck.

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Why would evolution bother giving you a full

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set of wings if you aren't going to take off?

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It feels, I don't know, inefficient. Well, that's

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the big question, isn't it? There are a few ideas.

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One is display, you know, for attracting a mate.

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Another is for brooding, using the wings to cover

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a nest. But the most exciting one relates to

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how it moved. Go on. It's a hypothesis called

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WHERE, wing -assisted incline running. I think

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I've seen videos of this with birds, like baby

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partridges or something. Yes, exactly. If you

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watch bird chicks that can't fly yet, they'll

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run up steep surfaces like a tree trunk, and

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they'll flap their wings like crazy. Right. The

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flapping isn't to lift them up. It's to push

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them down into the surface. It increases the

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traction in their feet so they don't slip. So

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let's picture our velociraptor. It's in the Gobi

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Desert, which we know is full of sand dunes.

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It's chasing something. It hits a steep dune

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face. And instead of scrambling and sliding back

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down, it starts flapping those feathered arms.

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The aerodynamic force pins it to the sand, giving

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it the grip to just run straight up a 45 -degree

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incline. That is a wild image. A killer turkey

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using its wings to get better grip. It's practical,

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but it's a long way from the movie monster. It

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is. But I'd argue what it actually did with its

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weapons is far more interesting. And to understand

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that, we have to talk about the fighting dinosaurs.

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This is the famous one, the fossil found in 1971.

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The velociraptor and a protoceratops locked in

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combat. It is a perfect snapshot of violence.

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You have the predator, velociraptor, and the

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prey. A sheep -sized herbivore called Protoceratops.

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They are literally frozen mid -battle. And the

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raptor has its sickle claw? Where is it? It's

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embedded deep in the throat of the Protoceratops.

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And the Protoceratops, in turn, has clamped down

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its powerful beak on the raptor's arm and broken

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it. And they were just buried like that? Instantly.

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The theory is a sand dune collapsed on top of

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them. A sudden landslide of sand that preserved

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them in that exact moment. Wow. So that tells

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us what they hunted, but the how. That's where

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the debate comes in. The movies show them using

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that toe claw to disembowel their prey. The great

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disemboweling myth. But I'm looking at a study

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here where they tested a mechanical claw on a

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pork belly. They did. For a BBC documentary,

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they built a robotic raptor leg and swiped it

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at a pig carcass to see if it would slash it

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open. And did it. It punctured. It punched a

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deep hole, but it didn't slice. And when you

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look at the claw's anatomy, that makes perfect

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sense. The inner curve is rounded. It's a pickaxe,

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not a razor blade. So it's not a slasher. It's

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a piercing weapon. It's a precision instrument.

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And in that fighting dinosaur's fossil, where

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is the claw? It's in the throat. It was targeting

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vital organs. The jugular, the carotid artery,

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the trachea. It wasn't trying to gut the animal.

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It was trying to turn off the lights. But that

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brings me back to the size. If I'm a 30 -pound

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animal and I jump on a 200 -pound protoceratops

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and just stick a claw in its neck, it's just

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going to thrash me off. How do you stay on? And

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that right there is the key question that leads

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to the most compelling model we have for how

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these things hunted. It's called RPR. RPR. Raptor

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Prey Restraint. It was proposed by Denver Fowler

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and his team back in 2011. Okay, break that down

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for me. Raptor prey restraint. Fowler looked

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at modern birds of prey. Hawks, eagles, that

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kind of thing. When a hawk catches a rabbit,

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it doesn't just bite it once. It lands on top

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of it. It uses its body weight to pin the prey

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to the ground, and it sinks its talons in to

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get a death grip. So the claws are like grappling

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hooks. They are grappling hooks, exactly. And

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the foot anatomy of Velociraptor is incredibly

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similar to modern hawks. That big sickle claw

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is a primary anchor. They would leap onto the

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back of their prey, sink that claw in, and just

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ride it, using their weight to pit it down. That

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sounds incredibly dangerous. You're riding a

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bucking bronco. It is. And this is where the

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wings come back into the picture. Remember where?

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Flapping for traction. Yeah. Fowler's team suggests

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the wings served another crucial function during

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the kill. Stability. So like a tightrope walker

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using a pole to balance? Precisely that. As the

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prey animal is thrashing and bucking, the Velociraptor's

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on top, flapping its wings, using that aerodynamic

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force and drag to keep itself upright. They're

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flapping stabilizers. So the wings aren't for

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flying, they're for staying mounted on a dying

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animal. That is, that's surprisingly dark. It

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gets a bit darker. Because they aren't killing

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with a single crushing bite, and they have the

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prey pinned down. The RPR model suggests they

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probably started eating the animal while it was

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still alive. Oh. Modern hawks do this. They restrain

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the prey and just begin to feed, waiting for

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shock and blood loss to finish the job. That's

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gruesome. But it's very efficient. That really

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puts the weak bite force stat into perspective.

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I saw that here, only 304 newtons. It seems pathetic

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compared to a T -Rex. It's weak if you're trying

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to crush bone, yeah. But they didn't need to.

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Their teeth are serrated. If the claws are doing

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the holding, the mouth just has to strip away

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flesh. It's a saw, not a vice. Think Komodo dragon.

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Okay, so we have a solitary hunter pinning its

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prey, flapping to balance, eating it alive. But

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I have to ask about the pack, the clever girl

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moment. Is there any evidence for that? And this

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is where I have to break the last remaining hearts

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of the movie fans. For Velociraptor specifically,

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the evidence for pack hunting is, well, it's

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effectively zero. Zero. Not even a little. In

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the Judacta formation, Velociraptor fossils are

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almost always found alone. We just don't find

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those mass grave sites with multiple raptors

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attacking a single prey item, which is what you'd

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expect. So where did the idea come from? From

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Deinonychus again, the American cousin. There

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are sites where Deinonychus have been found in

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groups. But for the Mongolian Velociraptor, it

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seems to have been a lone wolf. Or a lone lethal

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turkey. A lone lethal nocturnal turkey. Right,

00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:50.149
the eyes. Tell me about the scleral rings. Those

00:11:50.149 --> 00:11:52.590
are the bony rings in the eye socket. They are.

00:11:52.730 --> 00:11:55.090
And the size of the opening in those rings tells

00:11:55.090 --> 00:11:57.490
you a lot about how much light the eye can let

00:11:57.490 --> 00:12:00.710
in. For Velociraptor, the rings suggest an eye

00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:03.429
that was adapted for low light conditions. It

00:12:03.429 --> 00:12:05.529
was a night hunter. Which makes sense for a desert

00:12:05.529 --> 00:12:08.049
environment. Avoid the heat of the day. Precisely.

00:12:08.049 --> 00:12:11.190
And what's interesting is that their prey, Protoceratops,

00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:14.070
shows a pattern of being catheter active in short

00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:16.789
bursts, day or night. So that fighting dinosaurs

00:12:16.789 --> 00:12:18.929
battle probably happened at dawn or twilight

00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:21.450
or maybe even under a full moon. So let's wrap

00:12:21.450 --> 00:12:23.789
all this up. The Hollywood version was a human

00:12:23.789 --> 00:12:27.110
-sized, scaly, pack -hunting genius that could

00:12:27.110 --> 00:12:31.009
open doors. The reality is a solitary, nocturnal,

00:12:31.009 --> 00:12:33.870
feather -covered predator. It weighs about as

00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:36.730
much as a coyote. It ambushes prey in the dunes,

00:12:36.730 --> 00:12:39.690
pins it down with hawk -like claws, flaps its

00:12:39.690 --> 00:12:42.009
wings to stay balanced, and then begins to eat

00:12:42.009 --> 00:12:46.250
it. You know, that feels more real, more visceral

00:12:46.250 --> 00:12:49.399
somehow, the mechanics of it. The flapping to

00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:51.399
stay on top of a struggling animal, it makes

00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:53.059
it feel like a real animal, not just a movie

00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.639
monster. I think so, too. Biology is almost always

00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:57.820
weirder and more interesting than fiction. Before

00:12:57.820 --> 00:12:59.879
we go, I want to circle back to that RPR model

00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:01.559
one last time. You mentioned something in our

00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:03.519
chat before we started about the connection between

00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:06.059
that killing motion and the evolution of flight

00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:08.039
itself. Right. This is one of those ideas that

00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:10.419
just, it's so compelling. If you think about

00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:12.580
that motion, a feathered arm flapping to create

00:13:12.580 --> 00:13:15.899
a stabilizing downward force, that motion is

00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:18.200
remarkably similar to the... Power stroke of

00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:20.440
a bird in flight. Wait, so you're saying that

00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:23.059
the arm movement that allows birds to fly today

00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:25.399
might have started as a way for dinosaurs to

00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:27.759
kill things more effectively? It's a very strong

00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:32.279
hypothesis. Evolution repurposes things. A flapping

00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.059
stroke developed to keep a predator stable on

00:13:35.059 --> 00:13:37.960
a thrashing victim could, over millions of years,

00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.379
be refined and co -opted into a stroke that generates

00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:44.059
lift. So when you look at a pigeon taking off

00:13:44.059 --> 00:13:46.980
in the park... You might be seeing the distant...

00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:50.289
repurposed echo of a predator holding down its

00:13:50.289 --> 00:13:52.730
dinner that is a heavy thought to leave us on

00:13:52.730 --> 00:13:54.669
the line between death and flight is thinner

00:13:54.669 --> 00:13:57.110
than we think nature never wastes a good mechanism

00:13:57.110 --> 00:13:59.549
well thank you for this deep dive this has been

00:13:59.549 --> 00:14:00.970
incredible my pleasure