Velociraptors (often just referred to as 'raptors') are one of the most dangerous animals in Jurassic World. Their history with InGen has been a troubled one, in part because they have been engineered much larger than their base genome, but also because they have proved to be smart and efficient hunters. More recently they have been part of the IBRIS project where Owen Grady (and supporting team) trained them to obey commands. Their name means 'swift seizer'.
Discovery
In 1923, an American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Gobi Desert recovered the first Velociraptor fossil. During the Cold War, Polish, Russian, and Mongolian scientists uncovered further specimens – the most famous of which is the 'fighting dinosaurs' with a Velociraptor battling a Protoceratops. Further discoveries have been made since that time by a number of teams.
Paleoecology
Velociraptor fossils have all been located in what was once an arid landscape with mostly sand dunes, and only the occasional stream.
