{"id":360,"date":"2011-05-08T01:02:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-08T08:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argee.net\/wordpress\/?p=360"},"modified":"2012-06-01T16:43:24","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T23:43:24","slug":"will-the-real-velociraptor-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360","title":{"rendered":"Will the real Velociraptor please stand up!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"mr_social_sharing_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Social Sharing Toolkit v2.2 --><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 51px; height: 21px; overflow: hidden;\"><div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-send=\"false\" data-width=\"51\" data-show-faces=\"false\"><\/div><\/span><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><fb:share-button type=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\"><\/fb:share-button><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-text=\"Will the real Velociraptor please stand up!\"><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><div class=\"g-plusone\" data-size=\"medium\" data-annotation=\"none\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\"><\/div><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_digg\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D360&amp;title=Will+the+real+Velociraptor+please+stand+up%21\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/digg.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Digg This\" title=\"Digg This\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D360\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/reddit.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Submit to reddit\" title=\"Submit to reddit\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"linksalpha_button linksalpha_link\" href=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/social\/mobile\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-text=\"Will the real Velociraptor please stand up!\" data-desc=\"Nearly everyone has seen Steven Spielberg's\u00a0Jurassic Park. From this film the world has taken an image of the Velociraptor\u00a0as a very scary, very smart pack hunter that was larger than a human. We all remember the disemboweling claw on the forearms. The medium is effective, and Spielberg\" data-image=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/52795-47286\/Velociraptor.jpg?a=1\" data-button=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/images\/social_share_button.png\" alt=\"Share\" class=\"linksalpha_image\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/scripts\/loader_iconbox.js?v=2.4\"><\/script><\/span><\/div><p><font class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"left\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"1136ca0\" sourceindex=\"500\">Nearly everyone has seen Steven Spielberg&#8217;s&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"501\">Jurassic Park<\/i>. From this film the world has taken an image of the <i sourceindex=\"502\">Velociraptor<\/i>&nbsp;as a very scary, very smart pack hunter that was larger than a human. We all remember the disemboweling claw on the forearms. The medium is effective, and Spielberg did a fabulous job.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"center\" sourceindex=\"503\"><br sourceindex=\"505\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/52795-47286\/Velociraptor.jpg?a=1\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; WIDTH: 500px; HEIGHT: 207px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/52795-47286\/Velociraptor.jpg?a=1\"><\/a><br \/>The size of&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"506\">Velociraptor<\/i>&nbsp;was greatly exaggerated in the Jurassic Park movie. The<br sourceindex=\"507\">dinosaur weighed only about 15kg and was some 1.5m long. In the movie,<br sourceindex=\"508\">the dinosaur was presented as being taller than a man.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"left\" sourceindex=\"509\">The real creature belonged to the&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"510\">Dromaeosauridae<\/i>, a family of small to medium-sized, lightly built and fast-running dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period (146 million to 65 million years ago) who appear from the fossil record to have been very effective predators. There is even evidence some, such as&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"511\">Deinonychus<\/i>, hunted in packs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"left\" sourceindex=\"512\">And here&#8217;s the really interesting new information. A re-assessment by the American Museum of Natural History and the Field Museum of Natural History of a&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"513\">Velociraptor<\/i>&nbsp;fossil forearm unearthed in Mongolia in 1998 has revealed an array of small bumps. In modern birds, such &#8220;quill knobs&#8221; are the locations where secondary feathers, the flight or wing feathers, are anchored to the bone with ligaments. Modern birds that primarily soar or that have lost the ability to fly typically lack quill knobs. Strong fliers, on the other hand, always have them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"left\" sourceindex=\"514\">Alan Turner, from the AMNH and Columbia University, explains, &#8220;A lack of quill knobs does not necessarily mean that a dinosaur did not have feathers. Finding quill knobs on&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"515\">Velociraptor<\/i>, though, means that it definitely had feathers. This is something we&#8217;d long suspected, but no one had been able to prove.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"center\" sourceindex=\"516\"><br sourceindex=\"518\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"center\" sourceindex=\"516\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/52795-47286\/feathers.GIF?a=94\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/images.quickblogcast.com\/52795-47286\/feathers.GIF?a=94\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 3px; \" align=\"center\" sourceindex=\"516\">(A)&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"519\">Velociraptor<\/i>&nbsp;ulna (forearm) fossil. (C) Close-up detail of red box in (A),<br sourceindex=\"520\">with arrows showing quill knobs. (C) Comparison with a modern turkey vulture.<br sourceindex=\"521\">(D) Same view of (C) but with secondary feathers still attached<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; \" sourceindex=\"522\">The Mongolian&nbsp;<i sourceindex=\"523\">Velociraptor<\/i>&nbsp;from this study weighed about 15kg and was some 1.5m long. It had&nbsp;short arms, indicating that the feathered creature could not fly; but its feathers may have been useful for display, to shield nests, for temperature control or to help it maneuver while running, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; \" sourceindex=\"524\">You told a great story Steven, but the real world has intruded into your fantasy. I presume you didn&#8217;t have any nefarious political axe to grind, as did Oliver Stone, so I&#8217;ll continue to enjoy your version, while reminding myself that truth often is stranger than fiction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; \" sourceindex=\"524\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: black; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; \" sourceindex=\"524\">Imported comment:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; \" sourceindex=\"524\">\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; \" sourceindex=\"524\"><font class=\"Apple-style-span\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 11px;\"># jscroft&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; \" sourceindex=\"524\"><font class=\"Apple-style-span\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 11px;\">Saturday, May 7, 2011 5:00 PM<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; \" sourceindex=\"524\"><font class=\"Apple-style-span\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 11px;\">As you say, we all remember the scene in Jurassic Park where two big raptors hunted the little kids through the Welcome Center kitchen.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; \" sourceindex=\"524\"><font class=\"Apple-style-span\" face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica\n, sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 11px;\">But really&#8230; trade two 150 kg raptors for 20 of them at a tenth the mass and the same number of teeth per animal, and Spielberg&#8217;s nightmare just gets WORSE!<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"mr_social_sharing_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Social Sharing Toolkit v2.2 --><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 51px; height: 21px; overflow: hidden;\"><div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-send=\"false\" data-width=\"51\" data-show-faces=\"false\"><\/div><\/span><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><fb:share-button type=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\"><\/fb:share-button><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-text=\"Will the real Velociraptor please stand up!\"><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><div class=\"g-plusone\" data-size=\"medium\" data-annotation=\"none\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\"><\/div><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_digg\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D360&amp;title=Will+the+real+Velociraptor+please+stand+up%21\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/digg.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Digg This\" title=\"Digg This\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D360\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/reddit.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Submit to reddit\" title=\"Submit to reddit\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"linksalpha_button linksalpha_link\" href=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/social\/mobile\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=360\" data-text=\"Will the real Velociraptor please stand up!\" data-desc=\"Nearly everyone has seen Steven Spielberg's\u00a0Jurassic Park. From this film the world has taken an image of the Velociraptor\u00a0as a very scary, very smart pack hunter that was larger than a human. We all remember the disemboweling claw on the forearms. The medium is effective, and Spielberg\" data-image=\"\" data-button=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/images\/social_share_button.png\" alt=\"Share\" class=\"linksalpha_image\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/scripts\/loader_iconbox.js?v=2.4\"><\/script><\/span><\/div><p>Oliver Stone did it with recent history, and apparently Steven Spielberg has done it with very ancient history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[623,614,616,612,611,613,609,610,620,615,622,607,617,624,618,619,606,605,608,621],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-science","tag-alan-turner","tag-american-museum-of-natural-history","tag-birds","tag-cretaceous","tag-cretaceous-period","tag-deinonychus","tag-dinosaur","tag-dromaeosauridae","tag-feathers","tag-field-museum-of-natural-history","tag-flight-feathers","tag-jurassic-park","tag-mongolia","tag-oliver-stone","tag-quill-knobs","tag-secondary-feathers","tag-spielberg","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-velociraptor","tag-wing-feathers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}