OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — New research led by UW-Oshkosh shows velociraptors likely did not hunt in packs like dogs, as shown in the movie, “Jurassic Park.”
The analysis of raptor teeth was published in the peer-reviewed journal “Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.”
The 1993 blockbuster hit portrayed raptors as highly intelligent predators that worked in groups to hunt large prey.
However after studying the chemistry of teeth from the raptor Deinonychus, which lived in North America during the Cretaceous Period about 115 to 108 million years ago, Joseph Frederickson, director of the Weis Earth Science Museum at UWO Fox Cities campus, says that can’t be true.
While Fredrerickson says Jurrasic Park completely changed the way most people saw and understood dinosaurs, particularly raptors.
“It was the most scientifically accurate movie of its time and actually by modern standards, it still holds up really well. It was using cutting-edge science and the science behind the pack hunting was based on real scientific observations, based on these dinosaurs, these raptors, being found in a group, so it’s always been something that piqued my curiosity,” Frederickson said.
Researchers say modern dinosaurs, like Cretaceous crocodilians, show a difference in diet between the smallest and largest teeth, indicating a distinct transition in diet as they grew.
“This is what we would expect for an animal where the parents do not provide food for their young,” Frederickson said. “We also see the same pattern in the raptors, where the smallest teeth and the large teeth do not have the same average carbon isotope values, indicating they were eating different foods. This means the young were not being fed by the adults, which is why we believe Jurassic Park was wrong about raptor behavior.”
Another thing missing from the raptors in Jurrasic Park: feathers.
“They’re still lagging behind in putting feathers on raptors and the raptors would have almost certainly been completely covered in feathers,” Fredrickson said.
Frederickson added that the method used in this study to analyze carbon in teeth could be applied to see whether other extinct creatures may have hunted in packs.
The UWO analysis is not the first to suggest velociraptors didn’t hunt in packs.
