Terrible Lizards

It is appropriate to kick off the second series of Terrible Lizards with an animal famous for its dangerous feet. Few people had heard of Velociraptor before Jurassic Park, but it is now an A-lister alongside Tyrannosaurus as one of the few dinosaurs almost anyone can name. With fame though has come huge misconceptions about its size, appearance, capabilities and behaviour. The large, scaly, super-intelligent pack-hunter of large prey is likely none of these things and Dave and Iszi work their way through the myths and realities of this little Mongolian predator. Our first guest of the season is half of Penn & Teller, the juggler and magician Penn Jillette, who wants to know about the longevity of dinosaur lineages and how common they were in the Mesozoic.

Links:

Photos of a famous Velociraptor specimen locked on (possible) mortal combat with a Protoceratops: https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/a-bit-on-the-‘fighting-dinosaurs’/

A description of Dave’s work on a specimen of Velociraptor that swallowed a large pterosaur bone https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/velociraptor-scavenging-azhdarchid/

Link to the original paper describing quill knobs in Velociraptor that prove the presence of feathers https://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5845/1721