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Raptor Behavior


Hendrix Campbell

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I remember seeing an episode on the TV documentary series Jurassic Fight Club: "Raptor versus Edmontosaurus" which pretty much addresses your question.   The only link, I found, to the show was a poor video on WN.com.   So I've attached that link and if someone can get a better copy that's great.

 

https://wn.com/mobile/jurassic_fight_club_raptor_vs._edmontosaurus_vs._t_rex#

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Thanks for the link. So what's your favorite dinosaur?  Mine is a Utahraptor.

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Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T. rex — he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes — Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there.

 

Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this... A six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say... no no. He slashes at you here, or here... Or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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In ecosystems the animals evolve relative to each other. Fast, slow, smart, dumb only matter between resource rivals, predator and prey, etc.   

 

A raptor might move at 5 km an hour or 25 km...depends on the speed and reaction of its prey.

 

Most of these creatures were small brained and likely most action was reflexive instinct. We like to impart them with cunning and complex strategies but my inkling is that toss in a couple of modern mammals and T rex would have been a walking meal for a pack of wolves...and a cougar and cubs would be dining on raptor ribs.

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Guys what is your opinion about raptors and how they take care of their young

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/12/2017 at 0:31 AM, -Andy- said:

Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T. rex — he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes — Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there.

 

Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this... A six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say... no no. He slashes at you here, or here... Or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.

Nice reference!

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Wel for one thing. Raptors probably didn't use their killing claw to disembowel their prey. the inner edge of the killing claw is rounded, not sharp. So it's more of a grabbing tool than a ripping tool. If raptors hunted larger prey they likely used their large killing claws to hang on to their prey while they used their teeth to attack.

 

I don't think a whole lot is known about the nesting behaviour of raptors. But if you look at some close relatives of theirs, the Oviraptorosaurs, which we do know a few things about. There are some fantastic fossils of Oviraptorosaurs where the animal had died sitting on their nest. From this we know that these animals nested pretty much like birds and nest on the ground. They had a circular nest with many eggs layed in pairs (I think it was like around 20 to 40 eggs in a nest but I don't exactly remember). The Oviraptor would sit in the middle and use it's arms/wings to cover the whole nest just like a bird. Raptors and Oviraptorosaurs have a lot in common so for the time being it may be reasonable to assume their behaviour may be similar in some ways. Raptors also had proper wings like Oviraptorosaurs did, so they would probably be able to nest like a ground dwelling bird.

 

And as for my favourite raptor. It's Saurornitholestes.

 

 

On 12/05/2017 at 7:31 AM, -Andy- said:

Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period. You get your first look at this "six foot turkey" as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T. rex — he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes — Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there.

 

Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this... A six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say... no no. He slashes at you here, or here... Or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.

That's a pretty lengthy quote! :ighappy:

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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2 hours ago, LordTrilobite said:

. the inner edge of the killing claw is rounded, not sharp.

Have there actually been discoveries of fossil raptor claw sheath that show this?

 

Not disputing Your statement, just curious about it. As I can not think of any extant raptors that do not have sharp claws. But even at that, modern raptors do not use their claws to slash prey, like cats do.

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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1 minute ago, ynot said:

Have there actually been discoveries of fossil raptor claw sheath that show this?

 

Not disputing Your statement, just curious about it. As I can not think of any extant raptors that do not have sharp claws. But even at that, modern raptors do not use their claws to slash prey, like cats do.

Good point. I don't know of any raptor claw sheaths that have been discovered. But I seem to remember a test being done comparing the claws to other types of claws. But yes this was just the bone core of the claw, not the sheath. I think there was some clear different between other claws that were better suited for cutting though but I can't remember the exact details.

 

There are sheaths known on Archaeopteryx though. Though not a Dromaeosaurid, it's fairly closely related. But that just shows the side profile of the shape since those are flattened.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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