The Velociraptor, a dinosaur made famous by popular culture, was a genus of small, feathered predators belonging to the dromaeosaurid family. While its cultural image is often oversized, the real animal was roughly the size of a turkey, possessing the long skull and sickle-shaped claw characteristic of its group. The story of where Velociraptor was found involves international exploration and the unique geology of Central Asia. The most significant fossil finds trace back to a singular, arid region, providing unparalleled insights into the life of this swift Cretaceous carnivore.
The Gobi Desert: Primary Discovery Region
The primary location for Velociraptor fossil discovery is the Gobi Desert, a vast expanse straddling the border between southern Mongolia and northern China. The majority of the most important finds have been unearthed from the Djadochta Formation in the Ömnögovi Province of Mongolia. This geological formation consists of sandstones and mudstones that formed in an ancient, arid environment dominated by sand dunes and ephemeral streams.
The desert landscape is responsible for the exceptional preservation of the fossils found there. Rapid burial by collapsing sand dunes prevented scavenging and decomposition. This process preserved the remains in articulated, life-like poses, offering a unique window into the ancient ecosystem. The famous locality known as the Flaming Cliffs (Bayn Dzak) is part of this formation and yielded numerous well-preserved specimens, including the first Velociraptor skull.
The Historic 1920s Expedition and Naming
The first scientific discovery of Velociraptor occurred during the Central Asiatic Expeditions, launched by the American Museum of Natural History. Led by Roy Chapman Andrews, these expeditions aimed to find evidence of early human origins but instead unearthed a trove of dinosaur fossils. On August 11, 1923, team member Peter Kaisen discovered a crushed but complete skull and an associated sickle-shaped claw at the Flaming Cliffs locality.
The specimen was shipped back to New York, where it was formally described and named by museum president Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924. Osborn designated the new genus Velociraptor, derived from the Latin words velox (swift) and raptor (robber), referencing the animal’s agility and predatory nature. The type species was named V. mongoliensis, acknowledging its Mongolian origin.
Defining Finds: The Fighting Dinosaurs Fossil
A profound discovery occurred in 1971, nearly half a century after the first find, solidifying the importance of the Mongolian Gobi. During a Polish-Mongolian expedition, scientists unearthed the “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen at the Tugriken Shireh locality of the Djadochta Formation. This remarkable fossil preserves a Velociraptor mongoliensis locked in combat with a herbivorous Protoceratops andrewsi.
The Velociraptor has one of its hind claws embedded near the neck of its prey, while the Protoceratops clamped down on the predator’s forelimb with its beak. This snapshot provides direct evidence of the Velociraptor’s hunting strategy, suggesting it used its specialized claw to target vital organs. Scientists hypothesize that a sudden sand avalanche or dune collapse buried the two combatants instantly, preserving their struggle.
Velociraptor’s Geological Time and Distribution
Velociraptor lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 75 to 71 million years ago. The original species, V. mongoliensis, is known almost exclusively from the Djadochta Formation in Mongolia. However, the genus Velociraptor has a broader known distribution within Central Asia.
A second recognized species, V. osmolskae, was named in 2008 based on skull material found in the Bayan Mandahu Formation in Inner Mongolia, China. The Bayan Mandahu Formation is geographically separate but geologically similar to the Djadochta Formation, representing the same arid paleoenvironment. These two formations define the known regional range of the Velociraptor genus across the desert landscapes of the Late Cretaceous Gobi region.