Velociraptor vs Protoceratops

Velociraptor vs Protoceratops

(New drawing so printable version is at the bottom of the correct list.)

One of the most famous fossil finds of all time was found in the Gobi Desert.  It was a desert in the Cretaceous Period too.  The find was of a prey species called Protoceratops in battle with the predator species Velociraptor.  Eventually, during their fight , they must have bumped into a wet sand dune and it collapsed on them.  The dinosaurs were sufficated and died in mid battle.  In fact, Protoceratops is biting the forearm of Velociraptor and Velociraptor appears to have been clawing the underside of the Protoceratops.  

Over time tthe flesh rotted but the bones were replaced with minerals. . . and the sand dune solidified and cemented to form sandstone.  The fossilized bones are a snapshot of an anciet battle between to dinosaurs who lived in the desert.  The desert probably got monsoon rains that soaked that sand dune and wet sand dunes are very unstable.  So when dinos bumped into it, the dune collapsed.  In my drawing you can see that the top of the sand dune is becoming unstable.  There is rain and dark clouds in the distance to show that monsoon rains were happening at the time of this battle.  .   . or maybe the rain had already happened and made the dune very unstable.  

Velociraptor in the Desert

(This is an older drwing so it is in printable form further up the list.  

The lists are found under the buttons at the top of the page.)

Velociraptor was about the size of a modern domesticated.  It was about 3 feet tall and around 6 feet long.  In metrics, that is about 1 meter tall and 1.8 meters long.  Velociraptor weighed about 33 lbs.   . . . or around 15 kg.  If you liked the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies then you know that their Velociraptor was way too big.  However, when the first Jurassic Park movie was being filmed in California and other places. . . out in Utah REAL paleontologists found a much larger raptor dinos that was named Utahraptor.  Utahraptor IS the correct size for the movie raptors.  One other thing,  more recente evidence. . . than when the first Jurassic Park movie was made.... indicates that Velociraptor and all the Cretaceous raptors were almost certainly feathered.  So Velociraptor was the size of a turkey and looked a bit like a roadrunner. 

Protoceratops

(This is also an older drawing so it will be at the bottom of the Mesozoic Era 

part of the Paleontology list.  It will also be further up on the All Printables list.

By the way. . . I think my drawing skills have improved a lot over the last couple of years.)

Protoceratops was and early species of Ceratoposian dinosaur.  It was about the size of a sheep.  It wieghed around 390 lbs or 180 kg...and was only about 6 feet or 1.8 meters long.  My guess is that the battle scene that was captured in sandstone was of an adult Velociraptor and a sub-adult Protoceratops.  

The fossil can be seen at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, USA.

Velociraptor in the Gobi Desert