VELOCIRAPTOR
PRONOUNCED: ‘va-los-a-rap-tor’
Meaning
‘speedy thief’ or ‘swift seizer’
Habitat
Arid environment with fields of sand dunes and occasional streams
Diet:
Carnivore. Fossils found of Velociraptor locked in mortal combat with a Proceratops covered by an ancient sand storm.
CHARACTERISTICS:
A fast and agile two legged hunter with a long tail and large, sickle shaped claw on each hind foot to tackle prey. Large brains enabled them to hunt tactically in packs, which would have made them fearsome predators.
DEVON DINOSAURS:
Long before the Velociraptor or T-Rex existed, the Megalosaur, a similar, huge meat eating dinosaur that lived about 180 million years ago, walked along our coast in search of prey and left its footprints in the Dorset mud (image right). You can see them at the Dorset County Museum.
THE JURASSIC COAST STORY PART: I
The Jurassic Coast is a walk through 185 million years of the Earth’s history. Its rocks and fossils detail a near continuous story across the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Here, in Exmouth, is where that story begins.