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frogfoot wrote-
1: I was told by a rather uninformed friend
that those animals in the Jurassic Park movies, the "raptors" were of these
kind. Ive checked out the Utahraptor myself and the size-wise charts say
it grows to something between 6-8m in length (not sure about the height).
This seems to me, to be too large. Maybe they are more like a Deinonychus
size?
The maximum size for undescribed specimens is about
ten meters, based on caudal vertebrae (Britt, Chure, Stadtman, Madsen, Scheetz
and Burge, 2001). See http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2001Oct/msg00808.html .
2: I would like to know a little more about
the Utahraptor itself, for instance, how long is the switch-blade claw on
the feet. The largest Ive heard of is the Velociraptors reaching
48cm. Also, other facts and figures if anyone knoews them.
Velociraptor having second pedal unguals 48 cm
long! Ha ha ha! The holotype of Utahraptor is a claw about 24 cm around the
curve. The keratinous sheath would have made it longer, and ten meter
individuals might have had unguals close to twice as long. Velociraptor's
second pedal unguals got to around 6.5 cm long around the curve.
As for other facts-
Utahraptor Kirkland, Gaston and Burge 1993
U. ostrommaysorum Kirkland, Gaston and Burge 1993 = Utahraptor "spielbergi" Barremian, Early Cretaceous Lower Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, US Holotype- (CEU 184v.86) pedal ungual II Referred- (CEU 184v.83) lacrimal (CEU 184v.260) tibia (503 mm) (CEU 184v.294) manual ungual I (CEU 184v.400) premaxilla (BYU 9429) (3.89 m) mid caudal vertebrae (67 mm) (BYU 9435) distal caudal vertebra (BYU 9436) distal caudal vertebra (BYU 9438) manual ungual II (BYU 13068) manual ungual I Reference- Kirkland, J.I., Burge, D., and Gaston, R. 1993. A large dromaeosaur (Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of eastern Utah. Hunteria, 2(10), 1-16. Mickey Mortimer
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