Velociraptor Facts for Kids
veh-LOSS-ih-RAP-ter · its name means “swift thief”
A small, feathered, fast dinosaur with a big curved toe claw.
- 📏 5.9 ft1.8 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ meat
Velociraptor was a small dinosaur with feathers. It ran fast on two legs. It had a big claw on each foot.
Velociraptor was about the size of a big dog, much smaller than in films. It had feathers like a bird, a long stiff tail for balance, and one big curved claw on each foot that it held up off the ground.
Fossils show bumps on Velociraptor's arm bones where feathers attached, so scientists know it had feathers, though it could not fly. Its fossils come from the dry rocks of the Gobi Desert. It is a close cousin of the dinosaurs that became birds.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Velociraptor?
Velociraptor in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 5.9 ft1.8 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 | small animals and lizards |
| Fossils found in | the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and China |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- Velociraptor had feathers.
- It was about the size of a big dog.
- It held its big toe claw up off the ground.
🦴 Velociraptor’s bones
Books about Velociraptor, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Velociraptor for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Velociraptor lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
🦖 Ride a Raptor in Dino DashThe game’s rare Crystal Raptor and Comet Raptor are made-up versions of this animal.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Velociraptor (Q14403), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).