Utah-Raptor

UtahRaptor

Habitat

Intro

Interesting fact

By: Matthew

What dinosaur had feathers and was the largest of its family? The Utahraptor was a dinosaur that lived millions of years ago in Cretaceous period and is known for being the largest in the raptor family. The Utahraptor was a clever hunter. It was camouflage and waited for their prey. It is closely related to bird because of how it attract mates like some bird use their feather to attract mates.

The Utahraptors were discovered in Utah by Mountain Cedar Canyon, in North America. The region where the Utahraptor used to live was a forest and a desert but over time it changed to a Canyon in Utah. The landform in Early Cretaceous Era was a habitat for Utahraptor and other animals because there was cover in the forest and vegetation for animals and those animals were prey for the Utahraptor. The Climate of where the Utahraptor used to live was Tropical. Temperatures were between 80o and down to 68o because of where it lived. The habitat of where Utahraptor lived could be unpredictable that why was important for Utahraptor to adapt to its environment and get used to the weather and the climate to survive.

The interesting about Utahraptor is that most people didn't know that Utahraptor is the biggest raptor but instead they think that Velociraptor is because of the movie. The Utahraptor was discovered in 1975 but later on there gave it a name. The Utahraptor is the closest relative to Achillobator which is a theroop like Utahraptor. The unique feather that Utahraptor as an hunting advantage is that the claw on Utahraptor hind feet were almost one foot long. The Utahraptor were discovered by an archaeologist who is James Kirkland, Robert Gaston, and Donald Burge who gave it the name and the other name for Utahraptor in scientific way is Ostrommaysorum.

Food

Body

Care of young

The body of the Utahraptor is covered with an extra layer of skin. That extra layer of skin helps it stay warm in utah because its feathers act like an outer layer of skin that protects it from the cold. feather also keep it cool i the warm months by letting the wind pass through the feathers and enter the skin that the feather is covering. Utahraptor is in the Theroop family which means a dinosaur that is covered with feathers like a bird, and other vertebrates that are in the Dromaeosaur family like Velociraptor and Austroraptor. They are also warm blooded unlike other dinosaur. A unique feature is that it has a large jaw and claws on the toe on its left foot it help it by pounding on its prey. The color on its feathers to attract females. The height of a full grown Utahraptor is 8-16 feet. The weight of a full grown utahraptor can be up to 1,000 pounds. The difference between male and females is that female have a bigger coxal (hip) bone for laying eggs and male is more colourful than female. The Utahraptor was the biggest and most dominant dinosaur in its era because of how smart and how clever it was. A feature that helps the Utahraptor survive is its feathers and the color of male is mostly colorful colors and for female is brown or black for hiding while incubating the egg. It can help the Utahraptor in many different ways such as helping it stay warm/cool, and camouflage for catching its prey.

Starting as an egg, the Utahraptor hatches without a caring mother to look out for it. The first period of the age after a hatching is a juvenile, then it grows into an adult. The first instinct behavior of a hatching is to scavenge for food like eggs or small animals. The male Utahraptor attracts a female mate with its colorful feathers and will fight for the female if there two male Utahraptor. The female Utahraptor lays an egg and keep it warm until it hatches like a bird.

The Utahraptor is a carnivore which means it is an animal that hunts other animals for food to survive. One of the most efficient ways that the Utahraptor hunts its prey is by using camouflage and ambushing the animal. It launches its claw on the animal in order for it to grab the animal, or if the prey escapes it can run after it at a speed of up to 40 miles per hour. The era that Utahraptors lived in was the Early Cretaceous period which is 129.4 million year ago. The Utahraptor was on top of the food chain because it can rely on it self to hunts prey without needing other to help. The unique feature that Utahraptor used is slowly wait for their prey to pass by and ambush them.

The Utahraptor have to adapt to the weather and their environment for survival but their can’t without its feather because its feather is one of the thing that is important in Dromaeosaur family.