25 Velociraptor Facts For Kids.

These 25 Velociraptor Facts For Kids cover some of the most well know and lesser known facts about this “Fast thief” Although not as big as in the movies he had some cousins like Utahraptor that were bigger, Velociraptor was still a dinosaur you didn’t want to meet on a dark night, or even a bright day!

Velociraptor was a small, fast theropod dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period. 99-66 million years ago. Velociraptor was about 2 meters long, with a long tail and 5 inch sickle-shaped claws on its feet. It was a carnivore, It is thought to have been able to run over 40 kilometers per hour.

50 serrated teeth were scary enough but a large claw for slashing and cutting made him a scary dinosaur. then you add in the fact that he had great eyesight and a big brain, and hunted with others and you have a dinosaur that although small was a fearsome predator.

We have LOADS of dinosaur facts, resources, questions, and printables on the site so you can explore the site to find what you need.

Now lets look at these 25 Velociraptor Facts For Kids below

25 Velociraptor Facts For Kids.

1. The velociraptor was a small predator about 6.8ft long and 3ft high. Not as big as in the movies! Although when watching dinosaur movies you will see a velociraptor being as tall, or taller, than a full grown person this is not actually how big they were.

Those movies came from the books of Michael Crichton and he took the features of the velociraptors cousin, the Deinonychus and changed the name!

So the Velociraptor was a small predator, but still a scary one, they could grow to 6.8 Ft long and 3ft high ( if they were tall) most of this was a long tail though which they could use for balance as they ran.

2. In keeping with its small size the Velociraptor was not so heavy, scientists estimate that it would weight up to 50lb which is 25 kilos, or about the same as a medium sized dog.

However, it could certainly punch above its weight when it came to a fight. Its sharp teeth and terrible claws were used to catch and kill its prey and if they did hunt in packs they could have made short work of other dinosaurs. They are famous for having a big claw on the back legs that they could use to cut their prey.

3. Well we have never seen one run of course, however Velociraptor did have strong powerful back legs. The top estimate for its running speed is up to 40 miles an hour, or about 60km an hour. this is much faster than the fastest human at 27 miles an hour ( Usain Bolt)

There Is great risk at estimating the speed of extinct animals of course, and the rule of thumb often is used is the smaller the animal the fast it would move ( as there were plenty of things trying to kill it! We actually have an article on The fastest ( thought) dinosaurs here.

4. Although velociraptor had feathers, though it could not fly! These feathers would have been used for warmth and display instead. Fossils have been found with imprints of feathers and quill knobs in the skin there was firstly likely to not be enough of them, and its arms although powerful for its size were not developed for flight.

It had plenty powerful enough legs to run on instead!

5. Velociraptor were likely to be efficient killers. They had a lot of weapons to use on their prey. their main weapon was a large curved claw on their hind legs. There is debate on whether they used this to slice the soft under belly of their prey or use it on the neck of animals they attacked

they also had 50 plus very sharp teeth, although these were quite small and likely used to cut meat once they had their kill. they also had quite long arms for their size and these could be used to grip and claw as they attacked.

Although likely preferring smaller prey ther eis a very famous skeleton of velociraptor and a protoceratops fighting to the death called fighting dinosaurs. you can read more here.

6. These animals mostly have been found in what is now Asia, similar family members have been found in canada and they may have crossed over when there was a land bridge between North America and Asia.

7. They lived about 99 – 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous era at the same time as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops. There are many members of the Raptor ( dromaeosaur family) and raptors like atrociraptor, pyroraptor would have lived at the same time just in different locations.

8. Velociraptor was likely a pack hunter which, like wolves, means they would be able to try to kill prey that were bigger than they are. However, attaching bugger animals comes with risks, so it is likely they would have attacked similar or smaller dinosaurs as a preference.

as we mentioned above here is a famous fossil called “Fighting Dinosaurs” which is the death scene of a Velociraptor and a protoceratops locked in battle. A protoceratops was a sheep sized dinosaur which would have been heavier.

it seems on its own the velociraptor was not a match for a dinosaur of this size as both dinosaurs died.

You can have a printout of these velociraptor for free below. We have loads to collect here on the site

9. The first velociraptor was found in 1923 in the Gobi desert by Peter Kaisen. The Gobi desert in in Mongolia and fossils have been found mostly in Asia, specifically in or close to the Gobi Desert. It is what gives the velociraptor its full name velociraptor Mongoliensis

10. The velociraptor has a large head ( for its size) and it was quick long and full of teeth. The velociraptor has over 50 teeth, though they were sharp and serrated the claw on its foot was its main weapon growing to 5 cm or 2.5 inches. The teeth were more suited to pulling and tearing meat to eat rather than delivering killing blows.

11. The velociraptor has a large brain for its size, though we are not sure if it could open doors like the movies! They would be able to hunt in packs to attack larger prey. pack hunting requires coordination and team work and if not vocalised communication then at least visual. many of the late carnivores were smarter than those that came before them, with the todoon being considered the smartest of these. ( you can read more here about smart dinosaurs)

12. The name of the Velociraptor is particularly suited to this fast agile dinosaur. It comes from the Latin language.  The name ” velociraptor” means “fast thief, quick plunder or swift seizer.“ raptor is a common ending for dinosaurs names,

13. It is likely that the velociraptor went extinct with the other dinosaurs due to the asteroid impact and climate change 65 million years ago

If you think the Velociraptor is scary then check out our T-Rex Facts here!

Tyrannosaurus Rex Facts

14. There is increasing numbers of studies that show that dinosaurs may have been warm blooded in some measure. The amount they would move, how fast and how much they would have to eat all sways the argument that dinosaurs, including the Velociraptor, were warm blooded.

15. Real Velociraptor fossils can cost a lot of money, full skeletons could be millions of dollars! However you can, for much less get dinosaur fossils including life size claws and skulls for much less that this. ( thankfully) Larger Natural history Museums will also have gift shops with fossils for sale. You can also pick up Velociraptor fossils on line and we have included two links below to check out if you want.

16. Velociraptor teeth were not so large; they were about a quarter of an inch long. That is smaller than yours! However, the teeth of its much larger cousin, the Utahraptor could be 2 inches long or more.

17. The Velociraptor was certainly a scary dinosaur with its sharp teeth and stabbing and cutting claws, but its wasnt the biggest member of the raptor family. The honor is with the Utahraptor which was an incredible 20 ft long and 600- 800 lb raptor. To give you some idea of how big that is an Ostrich is about 150 lb it also came armed with 1 to two inch teeth and claws 5 times the size of velociraptor.

18. Velociraptor were born from eggs; We think those eggs were blue green and were about 4 inches (10cm) long, though we don’t know for sure. Dinosaurs were all laid from eggs, and we have more information on those here.

19. There are two know species (types) of velociraptor that have been discovered so far in the world. these are Velociraptor Mongoliensis.and Velociraptor Osmolskae. The differences between these two species of velociraptor are very small. It is missing a ridge and its teeth a slightly different as well.

25 Spinosaurus Facts For Kids.

20. There is a famous fossil of a Velociraptor and Protoceratops who, it appears, died fighting each other. a protoceratops was a medium sized dinosaur and probably to big for a single Velociraptor to try to attack. So it must have been either brace or desperate!

21. Although we have no idea what a velociraptor would sound like, maybe birds?, when there are in movies they have used pigs, tortoise and horse noises to make the sound of a velociraptor.

Printable Velociraptor Coloring Pages (and Dinosaur coloring Pages)

22. Although the movie Jurrasic Park and Jurassic World have dinosaurs called velociraptors in them these are actually based on the much larger Deinonychus, the author just changed the name and some other details.

They actually look like Utahraptors due to their size, and throughout Jurassic Park and its 5 movies so far (The 6th Jurassic World is coming soon) they have not been feathered. With one exception. In Jurassic Park 3 the Raptors had feather quills, which is unlike their appearance in all other Jurassic World movies.

However in the next movie Jurassic World, they had the velociraptors once again lacking feathers.

in jurassic World Dominion, although Blue, the “star” velociraptor has no feathers they do feather two dinosaurs that are feathered these are Therizinosaurus and pyroraptor and even the T-Rex in the beginning has feathers too!

All of them have featured velociraptors in one form or another. you can see the list of these below.

• Jurassic Park
• Jurassic Park the Lost World
• Jurassic Park 3
• Jurassic World
• Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom
• Jurassic World – Dominion (coming in June 2022)

23. The largest member of the raptor family was the Utahraptor which could be up to 2.5 metres tall. and 20ft long! they also had a big claw on their feet and mouth full of sharp teeth. There is also a smaller raptor than the velociraptor, this was called the microraptor and studies have shown that is was probably able to fly.

24. Velociraptors belong to a family of dinosaurs called the dromaeosaurs. dromaeosaurs means ” terrible clawed lizard” and when you see a claw of these dinosaurs you can see why they got their name!

25. Although a real velociraptor claw can be very very expensive you can get models that look the same and are the same size for only a few dollars, you can check out the link below for some ideas

Conclusion

Hopefully you have learnt something new in our 30 facts about the velociraptor article about the tiny terror that was the velociraptor, they may have been small but they were clever, fast and full of teeth.

We have loads of other pages on your favourite dinosaurs here on the siet so don’t forget to check out our other Dinosaur fact pages and question pages for more dino facts and information.

Some of My Dinosaur Resource Recommendations for Home and School.

Thanks for taking the time to read our facts and questions articles, as a teacher myself i have struggled to find resources in one place and that is why this website was born. I simply love teaching students about dinosaurs both in my role as a language and General Studies teacher. However there is sometimes a need for something more concrete than a printout (as useful as we think ours are! )

There is something awesome about the feeling of awe that these amazing creatures instil in our children and students. To further help you, and potentially me, i have included a few resources below that i have found to be incredibly successful when explaining dinosaurs to children, these range form books and resources, to toys fossils and dinosaur figures.

Sometimes having something tactile to touch in those tiny hands help to focus and cement learning and develop those big brains! Hope they are helpful too.

Dinosaur Books and Readers

There are of course hundreds of excellent, and not so excellent books on Dinosaurs for Children out there. So rather than, yet, go into huge detail. I will highlight the ones I love to use with my students from ages 6 to 10. We have include AR in these as well. ( nothing quite like a moving dinosaur in front of you!

Fossil Sets

I cant say how great these are to use in a classroom while reading with a group. the chance to read about a dinosaur and then touch a real piece is simply great. I have a selection ( self confessed dinosaur geek) but a cheap set of 10 or so will do the trick just as well. Dinosaur poop is great as well!!! i pass it round and ask them to guess what it is first!

Dinosaur Figures

I actually use realia in a lot of classes especially with animals and dinosaurs, and figures help to show the kind of animal we are reading about. It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on dinosaur figures but ther eis no need, either as a teacher or a parent. The set below and similar we have used to help students picture dinosaurs to great effect.

References

https://moneyinc.com/the-10-most-expensive-types-of-dinosaur-fossils-of-all-time/

https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Velociraptor/390096

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html