They lived approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period. (Nope! Not the Jurassic!)

Due to its prominent role in the Jurassic Park films, most people think they are much larger, but in real life, Velociraptors were roughly the size of a turkey.

The name is derived from the Latin words velox ("swift") and raptor ("robber") -- a reference to the animal's cursorial nature and carnivorous diet.

Examinations of the endocranium of Velociraptor indicate that it was able to detect and hear a wide range of sound frequencies (2,368-3,965 Hz), allowing it to track prey with ease.

During an American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Gobi Desert in Outer Mongolia on 11 August 1923, Peter Kaisen recovered the first Velociraptor fossil known to science: a crushed but complete skull, associated with one of the raptorial second toe claws.

Like birds, it had hollow bones, wishbones, feathers, and tended nests of eggs. Despite its birdlike plumage, however, Velociraptor could not fly.

Utahraptor was a fierce predator. Like other dromaeosaurids, it had a huge, blade-like claw on its second toe. With this 20 centimeter talon, it is believed that Utahraptor could make a deep cut 5 to 6 feet long with one swipe, enabling it to kill dinosaurs much larger than itself.

Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis, fossils of which have been discovered in Mongolia. A second species, V. osmolskae, was named in 2008 for skull material from Inner Mongolia, China.

The "Fighting Dinosaurs" is a famous and scientifically important fossil specimen that hails from the Late Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia. It preserves a Protoceratops andrewsi and Velociraptor mongoliensis trapped in combat and provides direct evidence of predatory behavior in non-avian dinosaurs. The specimen was discovered in 1971 and has caused much debate as to how both animals came to be preserved together with such completeness.

Although its sharp teeth and clutching hands were probably terrifying, the go-to weapons in Velociraptor's arsenal were the single, curved, 3-inch-long claws on each of its hind feet. In the "Fighting Dinosaurs" specimen, the Velociraptor lies underneath, with one of its sickle claws embedded in the throat of its prey, while the beak of Protoceratops is clamped down upon the right forelimb of its attacker. This suggests Velociraptor may have used its sickle claw to pierce vital organs of the throat, such as the jugular vein, carotid artery, or trachea, rather than slashing the abdomen.