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I doubt that a brontosaurus will try to kill you (or even notice you) unless you did something stupid at close range. A velociraptor on the other hand WILL hunt

I doubt that a brontosaurus will try to kill you (or even notice you) unless you did something stupid at close range. A velociraptor on the other hand WILL hunt you down and try to kill you. It will not stop until it feels your blood on its claws. Or at least that's what they did in the movies :)

electromagnetic 16y ago
Yes, but unlike the movies a velociraptor weighs 30lbs, my dacschund x Jack Russell weighs 10lbs and I'd be more afraid of my dog than I would the velociraptor. My in-law's Labrador weighs 80lbs. In reality, a velociraptor would not step anywhere near you. A pack might, but given that in the wild a wolf pack would still easily have triple to quadruple the weight of a raptor pack. A coyote pack would likely be double the weight. Given the presence of feathers in velociraptors the best outcome we could expect in the wild is for Big Cats to be playing with a raptor like a house cat plays with a baby pigeon.
- kijinbear 16y ago
  You're right, real velociraptors were pretty small. I was talking about the puffed-up version that appears in the movies, which more closely resembles the deinonychus (160lb). A pack of those monsters would weigh more than a pack of wolves or coyotes.
  - electromagnetic 16y ago
    You're probably right, but consider your average wolf has a bite strength of 1,500lbf/in^2 (compared to 750lbf/in^2 for German Shepherds), which is enough to bite through bone, and would stand around the same height if not taller. A dog would bite for this things head and neck, which is what has been selectively bred into dogs for thousands of years as most of the big dogs are related to bulldogs. However a wolf generally bites at the extremities to bring an animal down. Given the deinonychus is very likely to be a proto-bird, like the velociraptor, it likely had little covering its legs and given its scales would have been replaced with feathers, then it would be very vulnerable to a wolf biting for a take down. It'd be impossible to tell what species would win such a fight, given we have little idea about velociraptor and deinonychus hunting habits. However, give me a pack of trained English Mastiffs (AKC register-able above 150lbs and below 250lbs) and even the deinonychus would be no match. These dogs were used for lion-baiting, even back to the Colosseum in Rome, but were known for winning. I think the "oh no they might escape and destroy the environment" front is extremely naive to human nature and history. Our ancestors wiped out the wolf in the majority of Europe before the Chinese had even invented gunpowder. A dinosaur is no match for present day mammals. Even if we collectively bred a few hundred T. Rex and they somehow all escaped when fully grown, it still wouldn't be a huge deal. They'd likely starve to death through the inability to hunt modern prey. Or, you could just get the military to shoot one with basically anything they have to kill it. I mean unless we're talking Godzilla here, anything the military throws at any dinosaur will kill it. Whilst on the subject of Godzilla, the military could have simply got a SeaKing to drop a frigging nuclear depth charge on it and vaporize a hole in its head... but that would have made a rather boring movie.

electromagnetic 16y ago

Yes, but unlike the movies a velociraptor weighs 30lbs, my dacschund x Jack Russell weighs 10lbs and I'd be more afraid of my dog than I would the velociraptor. My in-law's Labrador weighs 80lbs. In reality, a velociraptor would not step anywhere near you. A pack might, but given that in the wild a wolf pack would still easily have triple to quadruple the weight of a raptor pack. A coyote pack would likely be double the weight. Given the presence of feathers in velociraptors the best outcome we could expect in the wild is for Big Cats to be playing with a raptor like a house cat plays with a baby pigeon.

kijinbear 16y ago
You're right, real velociraptors were pretty small. I was talking about the puffed-up version that appears in the movies, which more closely resembles the deinonychus (160lb). A pack of those monsters would weigh more than a pack of wolves or coyotes.
- electromagnetic 16y ago
  You're probably right, but consider your average wolf has a bite strength of 1,500lbf/in^2 (compared to 750lbf/in^2 for German Shepherds), which is enough to bite through bone, and would stand around the same height if not taller. A dog would bite for this things head and neck, which is what has been selectively bred into dogs for thousands of years as most of the big dogs are related to bulldogs. However a wolf generally bites at the extremities to bring an animal down. Given the deinonychus is very likely to be a proto-bird, like the velociraptor, it likely had little covering its legs and given its scales would have been replaced with feathers, then it would be very vulnerable to a wolf biting for a take down. It'd be impossible to tell what species would win such a fight, given we have little idea about velociraptor and deinonychus hunting habits. However, give me a pack of trained English Mastiffs (AKC register-able above 150lbs and below 250lbs) and even the deinonychus would be no match. These dogs were used for lion-baiting, even back to the Colosseum in Rome, but were known for winning. I think the "oh no they might escape and destroy the environment" front is extremely naive to human nature and history. Our ancestors wiped out the wolf in the majority of Europe before the Chinese had even invented gunpowder. A dinosaur is no match for present day mammals. Even if we collectively bred a few hundred T. Rex and they somehow all escaped when fully grown, it still wouldn't be a huge deal. They'd likely starve to death through the inability to hunt modern prey. Or, you could just get the military to shoot one with basically anything they have to kill it. I mean unless we're talking Godzilla here, anything the military throws at any dinosaur will kill it. Whilst on the subject of Godzilla, the military could have simply got a SeaKing to drop a frigging nuclear depth charge on it and vaporize a hole in its head... but that would have made a rather boring movie.