I. Time Period

The Mesozoic Era is considered as the Age of the Dinosaurs and it is broken up into three periods. 250 to 208 MYA was the Triassic Period. The beginning of this period was startlingly empty of life because of the massive extinction at the end of the Paleozoic Era. But as the climate grew hotter and drier, the first of the dinosaurs evolved from the reptiles. Most of them were small and still mostly resembling alligators or Komodo dragons. 208 to 144 MYA was the Jurassic Period. Rainfall increased and it stayed warm, so most of the Earth became covered in rainforests. Dinosaurs got bigger – a lot bigger. Also, different kinds emerged. There were armored and plated ornithischian dinosaurs such as ankylosaurs and stegosaurs. The first flying dinosaurs appeared as well. 144 to 65 MYA was the Cretaceous Period. During this time, there was a major evolutionary development – the appearance of flowered plants. Insects grew in numbers. Dinosaurs flourished. It was the perfect environment for them. The warmth and the excessive rainfall made sure that there was food for all. They were the largest and most numerous during this period.

II. What Is A Theropod?

There are basically three kinds of dinosaurs. Sauropods, Ornithischians and Theropods. Sauropods usually have a small head, long neck and tail, and of course ate plants. Smaller than the sauropods are the ornithischians, which were more bird-like and also herbivores. Theropods are characterized by short forelimbs, large jaws, the fact that they walked on two legs and, of course, their carnivorous appetites.

III. Utahraptors

The Utah Raptor, is from the mid-Cretaceous Period. It’s a saurischian theropod, which means that it’s a bipedal carnivore with hips similar to a lizard. It’s a huge dinosaur, reaching nearly 20ft long at full size. A Velociraptor, on the other hand, was only about 6ft long. An interesting fact is that the Utah Raptor was actually discovered during the filming of Jurassic Park and it helped to justify the excessively large size of the raptors used in the film.

The Utah Raptor is built with a very light skeleton, allowing it to be very acrobatic. It was very fast and could easily jump or balance on one foot.

Besides its dexterity, the Utahraptor has claws. On the second foot claw was an 8 inch long, razor sharp claw that could be rotated through a wide arch, similar to the claw the Velociraptors had in the movie Jurassic Park. When attacking another dinosaur, the Utahraptor would have lept at it feet first, dragging the second claw down on its prey’s flank to rip at its flesh. They hunt in small groups, usually two, because they are less successful by themselves. With two hunters, they are able to flank the prey and surprise it.