Deinonychus antirrhopus (© crownedrose)

➛ Lived during the Cretaceous Period.
➛ A member of the Dromaeosauridae family.
➛ Most likely covered in feathers, but we have no skin/feather evidence currently for Deinonychus.
➛ The top of its head reached a little over halfway up an average human’s body, and generally reached lengths of 11 feet.
➛ As shown, it features a sickle claw on each hind foot.
➛ Deinonychus is a very important dinosaur because of John Ostrom’s work with the theropod, leading to the Dinosaur Renaissance.
➛ These photos were taken by me at The Field Museum in Chicago.

Have a theropod you’d like me to write about? List it below!

I know I have to get some more TOTD posts up, but I lost the list of requests. These posts do take time to write, and I’m not on Tumblr or my Mac 24/7 to write them daily (as you guys have figured out by now haha).

But I’m going to make this the official request post. Keep your requests for theropods in the Mesozoic, please. Here’s that mandatory question mark so you can answer?

Big news.

I actually have a Theropod Of The Day post done! I know, that’s a headliner right there, haha.

It’s on Spinosaurus, which will be posted later today. I have other posts in the works, including many requests.

I apologise again for the lack of TOTD posts recently. But when real life palaeontology and geology call me to lectures, events, and digs, I can’t say no.

I’ll reblog past TOTD posts today for anyone who has missed those, and just keep a lookout for Spinosaurus later today!

iseegodinbirds asked:

Cover all of the raptors! Just kidding... that would take forever. How about the differences between the actual velociraptor and the raptor that was in Jurassic Park (which was actually deinonychus). Microraptor would be good too. :3 And maybe archaeopteryx...

It would take forever, but then again that means the TOTD posts won’t end quickly! Haha. Sure thing! I have them up on my “requested” list so that they will take higher priority than others on my general “to-do” list.

I did, a little while back, make a post about the differences because someone had asked in a reblog of mine. I can elaborate on it all as well in the future posts if you’d like!

As well, my friend Ryan (tyrannoraptora) did a great post on Deinonychus and stuff related to the raptors in JP. He also posted about raptor biomechanics, and theropod biomechanics are AWESOME!

2parks asked:

Would you do a TOTD on Spinosaurus aegyptiacus?

Of course! I have done a TOTD post on Baryonyx if you’re interested in looking at that - seeing as they are both members of Spinosauridae. I’ve done one as well on T. rex, and have smaller bits of information for other theropods in my TOTD tag. I have a master-list as well showing what I’ve covered so far when it comes to “official” posts. Browsing through my TOTD tag will lead to everything covered so far, so check that out if you’re interested.

For everyone as well, I’m sorry I haven’t had time to publish new ones! As I’ve stated before, my schedule can get insane some weeks. I’ll be working on new TOTD posts this weekend to have them published ASAP. I do appreciate the patience because I know many of you have requested animals to be covered! I haven’t forgotten, but these posts do take up some time for me to write, and I like to do them in one sitting; right now it’s just finding that amount of time to have at my disposal.

Posts I’m currently writing up:
  • Masterlist of palaeontology group digs in western North America.
  • What to do if you find a fossil (especially a big one).
  • How to find fossils, rocks, minerals. What tools you’ll need, etc.
  • More Theropod Of The Day posts, of course!
  • Why palaeontology is important for science and society.
  • Posts on dinosaurs and technology.

I’ve got other things as well, but those are some key topics I’ll be talking about. If you have anything you’d like me to cover, let me know! Have a look through my past posts as well on: science, geology, palaeontology, paleontology (yes I use both tags), dinosaurs, & Theropod Of The Day.

New Theropod Of The Day post coming soon (today)!

It’ll be on Baryonyx! Woo! I just finished the post, and now I’m going over it just to make sure I covered what I wanted, and I’m also going back over notes I took when I attended the Palaeo event with Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. talking about theropods, and a small section on Spinosauridae.

Keep a lookout, guys! It’ll be posted very shortly.

Theropod Of The Day - The Master List.

This will be a nice key for any dinosaur you’re looking for straight away. Listed below are the theropods that have been written about on my blog. If you have any questions or theropod suggestions, send me a message!

So I just wanted to say I read and appreciate all the feedback I received for the T.O.T.D. question! I’ve taken into account everything you all said and am trying a few things to make it not so tl;dr but also not cutting out everything I wrote. For me personally, I love reading long and detailed posts, but I do understand others aren’t as into it when it comes to that aspect. The T. rex post will be posted today! I’m doing a little editing to make it more “dashboard friendly”. I can say it will not be edited down to a few sentences, but I may even bold a few important facts for those who do not want to read the entire thing. I’ll see how I feel about it, but I sure hope in the end that everything I’ve written will be read!

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