Fun fact: the name Deinonychus means “terrible claw.”
More fun fact: There’s a super catchy song about the name
OH MY GOD DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS SONG.
THIS SONG IS THE REASON I WAS AFRAID OF DEINONYCHUS AS A KID. HOW DID YOU FIND THIS
If you’re wondering why the “Velociraptors” in Jurassic Park were depicted as the size of Deinonychus it’s because when Michael Crichton was writing the original novel in the late 80s there was a semi-popular attempt to recategorize a number of dromaeosaur species under the genus Velociraptor rather than retain their distinct genus names. This is why in the novel at the dig site scene Alan and Ellie are specifically excavating a Velociraptor antirrhopus rather than a Deinonychus antirrhopus or just a unspecified Velociraptor species like in the movie, and by extension why the novel implies inGen kinda just lumped together a bunch of different dromaeosaur genomes under Velociraptor mongoliensis (which as an aside for the first time since 1924 there was an actual second Velociraptor species, V. osmolskae, described back in ‘08)
….Well that explains some things about the Animorphs Megamorphs: In The Time of the Dinosaurs book…
