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First Fossil Evidence That Velociraptors Hunted in Packs

Posted by Zonk on from the clever-girl dept.

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The New Scientist reports that palaeontologists have excavated a fossil trackway in Shandong Province in China 100 to 120 million years old that contains footprints left by six Dromeosaurs, the more formal name for raptors, showing evidence of group behavior. Up until now, the popular stereotype from Jurassic Park of raptors hunting in packs has had no fossil evidence to back it up. The paths of the six 90 kilo raptors do not overlap where the animals walked alongside a river or stream. '"The odds of these tracks being made by different individuals that just happen to be moving in the same direction, without their tracks stepping on one another, are small," said Jerry D. Harris, director of paleontology at Dixie State College. "Groups that do that usually have relatively sophisticated behavior, and they're relatively intelligent," Harris added. "By moving together in groups, it's entirely possible that they hunted in groups."'"

7 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Run, Randall, Run! by ClayJar · · Score: 3, Informative

    (I hope this doesn't get in the way of my thrice-weekly xkcd entertainment.)

    1. Re:Run, Randall, Run! by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, in the second one, one of the three raptors has an injured leg and is limited to 10m/s. Otherwise, the problem would be much simpler.

    2. Re:Run, Randall, Run! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      He meant the third question. Look at the very last line in the cartoon: "Remember, raptors run at 10 m/s and they do not know fear." The injured raptor is in the second.

      While you can retcon it by saying "oh, it slows them down to run through a building", it still is inconsistent with the first question.

  2. Re:Best place to see dinosaur skeletons in Bay Are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not quite in the neighborhood, but if you ever come to Europe, pop over to the Natural History Museum in Brussels. It has the largest dinosaurus collection of Europe and it just finished a renovation of 25mio . In the free-of-charge opening Weekend (last week). there were 18000 visitors (the museum is now closed again for refurbishing). There were 3 hour waiting lines: http://www.naturalsciences.be/index_html

  3. Re:XKCD by doti · · Score: 2, Informative
    Don't forget the NO-RAPTORS t-shirt, at http://xkcd.com/store

    Say no to velociraptors (and all other members of the dromaeosaurid family). By wearing this shirt, you make your position clear: you do NOT want to be hunted down and eaten by raptors.
    --
    factor 966971: 966971
  4. Re:One little GOTO by julesh · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not to mention here (Randall answering audience questions at UIUC, including what the raptor entry points for the building are; non-torrent versions here; definitely worth downloading).

  5. ... and can we get one thing clear ? by The+Sith+Lord · · Score: 2, Informative

    Those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were NOT "raptors", but more closely resembled the deinonycus.

    Velociraptors were smaller, and had longer, crocodile like jaws.

    This has been annoying the crap out of me since Jurrasic Park first came out.