This dinosaur was actually VERY timely for yours truly as apparently in one of it incarnations (the without feathers version) it was the inspiration for the famous Velociraptor on the movie Jurassic Park! (HERE) Which we watch the second half of the night before Emanuel covered the Deinonychus. This dinosaur, first found in 1964 walked on TWO legs and they figure worked in packs. It was definitely carnivorous and was lightly built and had long grasping claws (thus the name). And, amazingly enough – were alive during the… wait for it… Cretaceous period??? I know, Jurassic Park… but… well facts are facts!
Our video was originally of a History channel show I think… and it shows, in rather great detail, a pack of these dinosaurs hunting. It is a little graphic though the kids were fine with it.
What I found interesting is that it is because of THESE dinosaurs that Paleontolologists moved to consider dinosaurs as a possible link to birds (thus the feathers have been hypothesized). This carnivore seemed to be one of the most organized in its hunting techniques and actually used its limbs much more to fight, some sites have compared it to karate fighting with its long legs! Definitely NOT a friendly dinosaur!
Now for our links… we had quite a few of course as there is LOTS of info out there! BUT here is what we narrowed it down to: Wiki has their fact heavy article HERE. We printed out THIS fact sheet from Dinosaurdays! EnchantedLearning comes through as usual (seriously I look forward to renewing this subscription come budget time) HERE. Emanuel especially liked the high kicking dinosaur picture HERE. And he was quick with the right answer on KidsDigDinos HERE. We chose the first of THESE colouring pages to colour (gotta love the feathers!). I loved the technique discussion on their fighting with the discovery link HERE. Emanuel loved the VERY birdlike look of the illustration on THIS site. There is a great illustration/chart on THIS site for size of the dinosaur (bigger than a human but smaller than an elephant!). And don’t forget a handy fact sheet HERE.
I am sure there are MANY more links about the Deinonychus dinosaur but we stopped at those links and video. I don’t think I will be showing Emanuel Jurassic Park quite yet… Oh and Emanuel’s favourite thing he learned about this dinosaur – that he fought using his claws and feet!!!! What a boy!
With feathers and all