Like them, they had hollow bones and built nests from eggs. July 17, 2015. Zhenyuanlong suni is the feathered raptor we've all been waiting for. “A lack of quill knobs does not necessarily mean that a dinosaur did not have feathers… Scientists found knobs, called quill knobs, on a specimen found in Mongolia which was an obvious sign that Velociraptors had feathers. Prior to this discovery, fossils of Velociraptor's smaller relatives, Microraptor and Sinornithosaurus, are shown with impressions of feathers. These could have been for mating displays, warmth, or egg incubation. More Animals. Columbia University graduate student Alan Turner, who also serves as a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was part of a team that examined a velociraptor fossil that was found in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in 1998. Its dinosaur classification is Saurischia. Velociraptor may have had feathers. If Velociraptor didn’t have feathers, it would probably have died out extremely soon, as it wouldn’t be suited for its environment. But they did have long feathers which they could flap around, and more recent evidence has shown that they possessed feathers all over their bodies. This Is How Jurassic World’s Velociraptors Should Have Looked. The discovery strongly supports the idea that Velociraptors were covered in feathers, Turner adds. In 2007, a Velociraptor forearm with bumps for feather attachment was discovered, confirming that Velociraptor did in fact have feathers. They had three fingers, unlike this unusual one fingered dinosaur. As a carnivore, Velociraptor would have used a combination of hunting and scavenging to find food. https://www.amnh.org/research/science-news/2007/velociraptor-had-feathers As we mentioned before, if feathers had a function it was probably related to attracting females or keeping them warm. A character in the film actually gives an excuse, saying that (in the story) theme park customers wouldn’t want dinosaurs with feathers. This video is using sciencetific data to prove whether or not Velociraptor had feathers. Bumps on the forearm bone of a velociraptor fossil are creating considerable excitement for advocates of the dinosaurs-to-birds hypothesis. It was likely to have been intelligent and may have used cunning to stalk its prey. Velociraptors had very powerful back legs with long claws that could rip into their prey. These claws were lifted back when they were running. Perhaps the feathers are only the genetic memory of ancestors who were able to fly. Feathers! Its smaller ancestors probably did use their feathers for flight (or at the very least, efficient gliding), and Velociraptor kept them but co-opted them for other purposes. They would have used their shorter front legs for gripping prey. 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