Utahraptor Facts for Kids
YOO-tah-RAP-ter · its name means “Utah's thief”
One of the biggest raptors, with a big claw on each foot.
- 📏 18 ft5.5 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ meat
Utahraptor was a big raptor. It had a huge, curved claw on each foot. It lived in what is now Utah.
Utahraptor was one of the biggest raptors, much bigger than Velociraptor. It ran on two legs, held a big, curved claw up off the ground on each foot, and had a long, stiff tail for balance. Scientists think it probably had feathers, as its smaller cousins did.
Utahraptor lived early in the Cretaceous, long before Velociraptor. Its fossils come from rocks near Moab in Utah, which is how it got its name. It belongs to the same family as Velociraptor and Deinonychus, the raptors, which had a stiff tail and a big claw on each foot. Part of its full science name honors John Ostrom, the scientist whose study of Deinonychus changed how people think about dinosaurs.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Utahraptor?
Utahraptor in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 18 ft5.5 m1scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | other dinosaurs and smaller animals |
| Fossils found in | Utah, in the western United States, in rocks near the town of Moab |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- Its name means Utah's thief.
- It was much bigger than Velociraptor.
- Part of its full science name honors John Ostrom, who studied Deinonychus.
🦴 Utahraptor’s bones
Books about Utahraptor, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Utahraptor for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Utahraptor lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Utahraptor (Q131193), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).