Jurassic Park’s fearsome predator was really no bigger than a turkey

VELOCIRAPTOR, star of the Jurassic Park movies, may have resembled a turkey with attitude more than a monster dinosaur, new research suggests.

The real-life creature was much smaller than its film version — and now scientists have established it had feathers.

Velociraptor, which lived 70-80 million years ago, was a two-legged predator dinosaur that stood about one metre tall and weighed around 14 kilograms.

A close relative of birds, it was armed with large scythe-like claws for grabbing and fighting.

In Jurassic Park, velociraptors are depicted as being taller than a man and highly intelligent.

There is some evidence that “raptor” dinosaurs may have been quick-witted, and possibly hunted in groups.

But they were nothing like as big and formidable as the films suggest, being about the size of a large turkey.

The latest research shows that although the dinosaur did not fly, it had feathers. A fossil specimen discovered in Mongolia in 1998 was found to have clear indications of “quill knobs” — bumps where feathers used for flight in modern birds — are anchored.

However its weight and relatively short forelimbs indicate that it lacked any flight capability.

Dr Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, said: “There is basically no difference between birds and their closely related dinosaur ancestors like velociraptor.

If animals like velociraptor were alive today our first impression would be that they were just very unusual looking birds.”