Devious Deinonychus
Hi welcome back to the Marvelous Mesozoic Time Machine! Today we’ll travel to North America during the early Cretaceous period approx. 100–125 million years ago.
We exit our trusty time machine and step into a huge puddle of mud, we have entered the floodplains of the Cretaceous. Home of Deinonychus Antirrhopus* a close relative of the notorious Velociraptor. It’s warm and you swat away a hungry mosquito. It’s a good thing our invisible force field protects us against harm and disease here. A breeze blows the stench of rotting dinosaur corpse towards us.
*The name Deinonychus Antirrhopus translates to “Terrible Claw”
Something dark and fast swoops down and snatches up a colorful frog. This is Meganeuropsis Permiana, a giant prehistoric dragonfly. He has a wingspan of up to 28 inches and is also carnivorous.
After looking around for a moment it’s clear to see where the terrible smell is coming from, a. Parasaurolophus lies rotting into the wet ground. The putrid smell has brought visitors, hungry ones. A hunting pack of three Deinonychus comes into view. Two of them go straight for the Parasaurolophus, latching their sickle-like claws into it and mounting their prey. They get to quick work with their razor sharp teeth, pulling away chunks of flesh.
You let out a disgusted gasp as a spurt of brown blood shoots into the air. Well done, you’ve sealed our fate. One of the three snaps its attention towards us. You are being drooled over by one of the most intelligent dinosaurs. At around 5 feet tall and 11 feet long the Deinonychus could easily take you down. She weighs anywhere from 160–220lbs, you don’t stand a chance. Just kidding, remember the force fields I mentioned earlier? A convent loophole that means this dinosaur can still throw us around, just not pierce skin.
Deinonychus could run at a speed of 40MPH. Some paleontologists claim the dinosaur could only reach 25MPH but none of that really matters because they’re both faster than you. With that, she screeches and lunges our way. The other two follow, leaping into the air and knocking us over.
With this vicious carnivore resting a foot on your chest you can finally get a closer look at the details. As she snaps at your face you can see her large serrated teeth. They are curved back to help her latch onto prey. Her feathers are colorful and she uses her small wings for balance. Adult Deinonychus cannot fly, this ability goes away once the juvenile stage is over.
Finally you get a good look at her infamous claw. Located on her second toe, this claw measures around 5 inches long. She keeps it off the ground as she walks to keep it sharp. Again, just be thankful she can’t actually dig into you.
It eventually becomes clear that although you are screaming like a little girl, neither of us are going to make a meal. The Deinonychus loose interest and skulk back to their original prey. I think its time to head home, thank you for joining me on another trip through the Mesozoic, I hope to see you again!
Disclaimer: The known facts on dinosaurs update all the time. We learn new things, old ideas get challenged, scientists will continue to debate and update our knowledge based on evidence. I try to keep up and keep my information as accurate as possible and I apologize if anything in here isn’t 100% accurate. The fact is, it’s hard to know anything for sure with a species that’s been dead for millions of years.
