# Velociraptor mongoliensis

> A small feathered dromaeosaurid from the Campanian of Mongolia, about 15 kg: far smaller than the film "raptors". Quill knobs on its forearm show it had large wing feathers.

- Classification: Dinosauria (clade) > Saurischia (clade) > Theropoda (clade) > Coelurosauria (clade) > Maniraptora (clade) > Dromaeosauridae (family) > Velociraptorinae (subfamily) > Velociraptor (genus) > Velociraptor mongoliensis (species)
- Length: 1.5 m
- Hip height: 0.5–0.6 m
- Mass: 15 kg
- Age: 75–71 million years ago (Late Cretaceous)
- Fossils found in: Djadokhta Formation (Ömnögovi Province); Mongolia
- Diet: carnivore
- Described: Henry Fairfield Osborn, 1924
- In films: Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic World Dominion (2022), Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Canonical page: https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/velociraptor-mongoliensis
Last updated: 2026-09-27

## Overview

Velociraptor mongoliensis lived in what is now the Gobi Desert of Mongolia during the Campanian, in the Late Cretaceous. It was named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924 from a skull and foot claw (AMNH 6515) collected in 1923 at the Flaming Cliffs by the American Museum Central Asiatic Expeditions.

It was a small, lightly built predator with an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each foot. Adults were about the size of a large turkey, roughly 15 kg, much smaller than the animals called "Velociraptor" in the Jurassic Park films, which were modelled on larger dromaeosaurids.

Turner, Makovicky and Norell (2007) found quill knobs, the attachment points of large secondary wing feathers, on a Velociraptor forearm bone. Velociraptor could not fly, but it was feathered like its close relatives.

## Name meaning

From Latin velox ("swift") and raptor ("robber, plunderer"); mongoliensis refers to Mongolia (Osborn 1924).

## Sources

1. Cohen, K. M., Harper, D. A. T., Gibbard, P. L. & Car, N. (2023). International Chronostratigraphic Chart (v2023/09). International Commission on Stratigraphy. https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2023-09.pdf
2. Dashzeveg, D., Dingus, L., Loope, D. B., Swisher, C. C., III, Dulam, T. & Sweeney, M. R. (2005). New stratigraphic subdivision, depositional environment, and age estimate for the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation, southern Ulan Nur Basin, Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 3498: 1-31. https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0df4baac-12e4-44ae-8ef7-3328b22e8604/content
3. Osborn, H. F. (1924). Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 144: 1-12.
4. Paul, G. S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2nd edition). Princeton University Press.
5. Turner, A. H., Makovicky, P. J. & Norell, M. A. (2007). Feather quill knobs in the dinosaur Velociraptor. Science 317(5845): 1721. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1145076

---

Cite as: "Velociraptor mongoliensis". DinoDex. https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/velociraptor-mongoliensis (updated 2026-09-27).