The Deinonychus : Five Interesting Facts About This Dinosaur

The Deinonychus name means "terrible claw" and was a carnivorous dinosaur. It lived in the Cretaceous period about 115 to 108 million years ago. It's fossils have been recovered in the Western United States. It is often described as one of the deadliest dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Origin of the Deinonychus name

This dinosaur was in Montana in 1931 and was named John Ostrom named the dinosaur in 1969. There were several years of confusion about the remains of this dinosaur that stumped paleontologists until John led a team of Yale University's Peabody Museum in 1964 to discover more of the bones for this skeleton.

The Diet of a Deinonychus

This dinosaur was a meat-eater with large sharp teeth and many talons. It was a very fast predator and could also be called a scavenger. Evidence suggests that this dinosaur hunted in packs and brought down larger plant eating dinosaurs.

The Size and Body Type of a Deinonychus

This was a quick and agile meat eating machine that grew in length to about 11 feet long and measure about 3 feet at the hips. This dinosaur has caused a lot of debate among scholars because there is evidence that it was warm-blooded and could possibly have been covered in feathers. This dinosaur possessed large hands with claws and it's hind foot was equipped with a sickle shaped claw. The dinosaurs (Raptors) featured in the movie Jurassic Park were smaller distant relatives of this dinosaur. And there is evidence that they hunted in packs and were an intelligent species. John Ostrom also noted similarities between the bones structure of this dinosaur's forelimbs and that of birds.

Life Cycle and Nesting Habits

Some archeologists/paleontologists estimate it's life span to be about 40 years like most of the theropods. Most likely the theropods made their nests like present-day birds and they would hover around and protect them in much the same way. This dinosaur probably lived in a forest area so materials were probably readily available and evidence suggests that just like birds it would often been on or near it's eggs.

The Deinonychus Enemies & it's Extinction

This predator died out in the same period it lived, the Cretaceous period. It's predators would be larger meat eaters during the Cretaceous era, and often the occasional stomping of the large plant eaters it sometimes harassed but because of it's size this predator had to be careful about it's surroundings at all times. Because it was the target of so many different dinosaurs that is the reason they probably hunted and lived in packs. They were an extremely deadly force to deal with in their era for the other dinosaurs but they were also vulnerable if caught out in the open, while nesting or caught alone.

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