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50 free Velociraptor trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Velociraptor most people picture is a two-metre movie monster; the real animal was the size of a turkey, wore feathers, and lived in the sand dunes of Cretaceous Mongolia. This quiz covers the actual dinosaur: its two recognised species, its long upturned snout, the sickle claw and what it was really for, the quill knobs that prove it had wing feathers, its surprisingly weak bite, and the evidence that it scavenged pterosaurs and fought its own kind. It also tells the discovery story, from Peter Kaisen's find at the Flaming Cliffs in 1923 and Osborn's naming a year later, to the Polish-Mongolian team that dug up the Fighting Dinosaurs in 1971, the Cold War years when Western teams were shut out of the Gobi, and the 'Ichabodcraniosaurus' found without its head. The last stretch is about the myth: how Michael Crichton borrowed Deinonychus and kept the better name, why Utahraptor turned up just as the film crew finished building their raptor, and how an NBA team came to be called the Raptors. Easy questions ask what the name means and how big it was; hard ones want hertz ranges, bite forces in newtons and formation names. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Velociraptor, the Fighting Dinosaurs, Deinonychus and Jurassic Park, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Our Dinosaurs and Tyrannosaurus Rex quizzes go further.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the name Velociraptor mean?
Swift thief
From the Latin velox and raptor; 'terrible claw' is what the name of the larger relative Hollywood copied means.
Q 02On which continent did Velociraptor live?
Asia
Its fossils come from Mongolia and northern China, roughly 75 to 71 million years ago.
Q 03Roughly how big was a real Velociraptor?
About the size of a turkey
Adults were 1.5 to 2 metres long including the tail, half a metre at the hip and 14 to 20 kg.
Q 04How many Velociraptor species were recognised by palaeontologists in 2025?
Two
V. mongoliensis from 1924 and V. osmolskae from 2008, though the 2008 one may not really belong in the genus at all.
Q 05Which fossil formation in Mongolia has produced most Velociraptor specimens?
Djadochta
Its wind-blown sands and dunes buried many animals alive during sandstorms, which is why the preservation is so good.
Q 06Velociraptor belongs to which family of feathered, sickle-clawed dinosaurs?
Dromaeosauridae
When first described in 1924 it was dumped in Megalosauridae, the wastebasket family for any carnivore.
Q 07What distinguishes Velociraptor's skull from other dromaeosaurids?
Long and low with an upturned snout
The skull reached about 23 cm, with the narrow snout making up 60% of the length.
Q 08Who found the first Velociraptor fossil, a crushed skull, at the Flaming Cliffs on 11 August 1923?
Peter Kaisen
He was on an American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Gobi; Osborn named the genus the following year.
Q 09Who named Velociraptor in 1924?
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Earlier that year he had casually called it 'Ovoraptor djadochtari' in a popular article before settling on the formal name.
Q 10What was the informal name Osborn used for the animal in a press article before formally naming it?
Ovoraptor djadochtari
Not to be confused with the similarly named egg-thief described the same year from the same cliffs.
Q 11The famous 'Fighting Dinosaurs' fossil preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with which dinosaur?
Protoceratops
The raptor's sickle claw sits at the herbivore's throat while the herbivore's beak clamps the raptor's arm.
Q 12The Fighting Dinosaurs were discovered in 1971 by a team from which two countries?
Poland and Mongolia
Western teams were locked out of communist Mongolia during the Cold War, so scientists from the Eastern Bloc did the digging.
Q 13Which cause of death for the Fighting Dinosaurs replaced the original drowning idea?
Buried by a collapsing dune or sandstorm
Q 21How many fingers did Velociraptor have on each hand?
Three
The wrist could not pronate, so the palms faced inward like a bird folding its wings, never downward.
Q 22A 2022 model estimated Velociraptor's bite force at about how much?
304 newtons
That is weaker than its bigger relatives at 706 and 885 N, and a tiny fraction of T. rex's tens of thousands.
Q 23The 'raptor prey restraint' model compares Velociraptor's hunting style to which modern animals?
Eagles and hawks
Leap on, pin with body weight, grip with the big claws and start eating while the prey is still alive.
The pair lie in ancient dune deposits, and their lifelike poses mean burial was near-instant.
Q 14The Fighting Dinosaurs fossil is officially considered what?
A national treasure of Mongolia
It was loaned to New York's American Museum of Natural History for a temporary show in 2000.
Q 15A headless Velociraptor-like skeleton nicknamed 'Ichabodcraniosaurus' references a character by which author?
Washington Irving
Ichabod Crane met the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the specimen was named Shri devi in 2021.
Q 16V. osmolskae, named in 2008, honours a palaeontologist of which nationality?
Polish
Halszka Osmólska co-led the Polish-Mongolian expeditions; the species is based on upper-jaw bones from China's Bayan Mandahu Formation.
Q 17Velociraptor's enlarged sickle claw was on which toe of each foot?
The second
It was held retracted off the ground, so the animal walked on its third and fourth toes only.
Q 18How long could Velociraptor's sickle claw grow, measured round its outer edge?
Over 6.5 cm
That is the bony core only; a horny sheath would have added to it in life.
Q 19Quill knobs on a Velociraptor forearm bone are direct evidence of what?
Feathers
Six knobs were preserved, spaced to suggest 14 secondaries; quill knobs almost never occur in flightless birds today.
Q 20The presence of quill knobs led researchers to suggest that Velociraptor's ancestors could do what?
Fly
That would make Velociraptor secondarily flightless, like an ostrich, though the plumage may have served display or brooding instead.
Q 24A 2005 BBC test with an artificial raptor leg and a pork belly showed the sickle claw could not do what?
Tear the abdomen open
It punctured the belly wall but could not rip it, undermining the old disembowelling idea in favour of pinning or throat-stabbing.
Q 25Comparisons of scleral rings suggest Velociraptor was active mostly when?
At night
Its horned prey seems to have been active in short bursts through the day, so the famous fight may have happened at twilight.
Q 26A 2012 paper described a Velociraptor with the bone of what animal in its gut?
An azhdarchid pterosaur
The bone showed no digestion damage, so the raptor died soon after swallowing it, possibly from a broken rib.
Q 27One Velociraptor skull bears two rows of punctures matching Velociraptor teeth, suggesting what?
It was killed by one of its own kind
The wounds show no healing and the body was not scavenged, so the bite was probably fatal.
Q 28Is there fossil evidence that Velociraptor hunted in packs?
No, none specific to this genus
The only solid evidence for group behaviour in any dromaeosaurid is a Chinese trackway of six large individuals.
Q 29Which living bird has been used as a model for the metabolism of dromaeosaurids like Velociraptor?
Kiwi
It has a stable body temperature but a low resting metabolism, plus similar plumage, bones and narrow nasal passages.
Q 30Velociraptor's hearing was tuned to roughly which frequency range?
2,368 to 3,965 Hz
Endocranial studies also back the picture of an agile, swift predator that could track prey by sound.