How Tall Was a Velociraptor Compared to a Human?

A real Velociraptor was about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) long from snout to tail and weighed about 15 kg (33 lb), figures widely reported from the adult specimen studied by Turner et al. (2007). Its hips stood an estimated 0.45 to 0.55 m (1.5 to 1.8 ft) off the ground, roughly at the knee of an adult human.

That makes it an animal you could look down on, not the head-high hunter of the films. Below are the numbers, how certain each one is, and where the bigger "raptors" on screen came from.

Velociraptor vs a human at a glance

• Length: Velociraptor about 1.5 m (4.9 ft), more than half of it tail; an adult human about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) tall.
• Weight: Velociraptor about 15 kg (33 lb); an adult human typically 60 to 80 kg (130 to 175 lb).
• Hip height (estimated): Velociraptor about 0.45 to 0.55 m (1.5 to 1.8 ft); a human hip is at about 0.9 to 1 m (3 to 3.3 ft).
• Head height: with its neck raised, the head sat a little above hip level, so around an adult's thigh.
• When and where: about 75 to 71 million years ago, in the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia.

How long was Velociraptor?

Length is the best-supported number, because several good skeletons are known from the Gobi Desert. About 1.5 metres is the figure most often quoted for adults. On the DinoDex profile it is marked low confidence: it is widely reported from Turner and colleagues' 2007 study of the specimen IGM 100/981, but it does not appear in that paper's abstract, and other published estimates reach about 2 metres.

Much of that length is tail. A Velociraptor's tail was stiffened by long bony rods, so it stuck out straight behind the body rather than curling. The body itself, from chest to hips, was not much bigger than a large dog's.

How heavy was Velociraptor?

About 15 kg is the usual adult figure, again reported with Turner et al. (2007). Secondary sources give 14 to 20 kg without a verified primary citation, so treat 15 kg as a sensible middle rather than a measurement. Either way, a child could outweigh one.

How tall was Velociraptor?

This is the least certain number, which is why we do not lead with it. The DinoDex hip height, about 0.45 to 0.55 m, is an estimate derived from complete skeletons and recorded with low confidence until it is checked against the source (Paul 2016). Hip height is the useful measure because Velociraptor held its back roughly level, like a bird, not upright like a person.

Put an adult human next to one and the raptor's hips would reach about your knee. Its head, on a curved neck, would be somewhere around your thigh.

Why were the Jurassic Park raptors so big?

The film's "Velociraptors" were sized more like Deinonychus, a larger relative from the Early Cretaceous of Montana first described by John Ostrom in 1969. Deinonychus reached about 3.3 to 3.4 m (10.8 to 11.2 ft) and an estimated 60 to 100 kg (130 to 220 lb), with hips roughly at a person's waist. Even that is a low-confidence range on its profile, but it shows the scale gap: the screen animals were built on a Deinonychus-sized body and given the more famous name.

Their even bigger cousin, Utahraptor, was several metres longer still. We compare the two in Utahraptor vs Velociraptor.

What did a real Velociraptor look like?

It was feathered. Turner and colleagues (2007) found quill knobs, the bumps where large feathers anchor to bone, on a Velociraptor forearm. So the animal next to you would look more like a long-tailed, toothy bird than a scaly lizard. Our explainer did Velociraptor have feathers? walks through the evidence.

How do we know its size?

From real skeletons, not guesswork. The type specimen, AMNH 6515, was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924 from a skull and partial skeleton found in the Gobi. Many more have turned up since, including the famous "Fighting Dinosaurs" found in 1971, a Velociraptor preserved locked in combat with a Protoceratops. Having several individuals is what lets palaeontologists say with some confidence that adults were turkey-sized rather than human-sized, even while the exact figures are still being checked.

Where Velociraptor lived

Velociraptor fossils come from the Djadokhta Formation of the Gobi, which formed in a dry landscape of dunes during the Late Cretaceous. Magnetostratigraphy suggests, without clearly establishing, an age in the late Campanian, about 75 to 71 million years ago (Dashzeveg et al. 2005).

Quick answers

• Was Velociraptor taller than a human? No. Its hips reached about an adult's knee (estimated), and its head about thigh height.
• How heavy was Velociraptor? About 15 kg (33 lb), roughly a large turkey.
• Were the film raptors real Velociraptor size? No. They were sized like Deinonychus, about twice as long.