Why are birds of prey called raptors and is there any relation to the dinosaurs?
Birds of prey have a tight hold on their prey when they grab it. Raptor is from the Latin rapare meaning to seize or grasp. The velociraptor is thought to have been a fast grasper of prey. The Latin root of the word is the only relationship. To correct some Hollywood misconceptions: The velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park were made 400 percent larger than those actually found in the fossil record. Real velociraptors were only the size of a large dog like a great dane. Also, both the velociraptors and the tyranosaurus rex lived in the Late Cretaceous period, (approximately 75 million years ago) not the Jurassic Period. They appeared about 100 million years after the middle of the Jurassic. Cretaceous Park must not have seemed like a movie anyone would have gone to.
