Discussion Main / RaptorAttack

I think that the link to Emily Willoughby's website should be removed from the main description for this trope. While her depictions are mostly* accurate, the recent revelations regarding her association with racist pseudoscientists, edit wars around the subject on Wikipedia, and Nazi fetish content, make me think she is an inappropriate person to reference for this page. I'd suggest Fred Wierum's Wikipedia size chart◊ as a suitable replacement.

• She does in fact overdo the resemblance between dromaeosaurids and modern birds, giving them contour feathers on the body instead of simpler filaments.

As partly mentioned already this trope isn’t needed. This could be done just as well if it was a category on artistic license-paleontology

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I think this page is getting a bit out of hand. It's becoming pretty much a list of dromaeosaurs in fiction. That's not really a trope, it's more of a People Sit In Chairs. What it started out as— and what it should still be— is a list of dromaeosaur portrayals in fiction that follow the inaccurate stereotype popularized by the Jurassic Park franchise.

Okay, this whole thing is getting way out of hand. First of all, as for Troodon hunting large prey; Well, a new study that was just published about a week ago describes a new species of troodontid, named Talos sampsoni. And the authors of that study remarked about the sickle-claw being injured. It was literally torn in half, in fact! Now, it could not possibly have hit it on the ground, because the sickle-claws were always retracted, up above the ground. Thus, it must have been injured, by a struggling prey animal. And, do you think that a tiny lizard or mammal could possibly have broken its sickle-claw, in half? Why, of course, not! That is just plain preposterous! So, it had to have been a relatively large prey animal, such as a Hadrosaur. Now, Talos was less than half the size of Troodon, and we actually have fossil evidence that it could hunt large prey. Thus, logic dictates that Troodon, which was more than twice as big, could also hunt larger prey.

Now, the thing is, there is also fossil evidence that Troodons hunted in packs. At a site called Egg Mountain at the Two Medicine Formation near Choteau, Montana, several Troodon skeletons were found together, right next to the skeleton of a much—larger Maiasaura. It is obvious that this pack of 15 Troodons hunted together, in order to bring down the larger herbivorous dinosaur.

Now, as for the supposed intelligence: As I stated earlier, modern-day Crocodilians and Monitor Lizards are extremely intelligent, and they are much more than capable of solving complex mathematical problems. According to several studies, Komodo Dragons can even count to 10, in their minds! Thus, even if their brains were not as proportionally large as is often claimed, they were still much, much larger relative to body size than those of living reptiles. And, living reptiles are certainly NOT push-overs, when it comes to their intelligence, and their cognitive abilities. Now, as for the parrot thing: Well, it's my fault. I worded that wrong. The book I have actually says that Troodon's brain was as large, relative to its body size, as that of a parrot. Again, I'm sorry for that little misunderstanding that occurred, between us.

So, what do you think?

Troodon is the best! Yeah! Hide / Show Replies