Velociraptor (Jurassic Park)/Bio & Battles

The Velociraptor was a mid-sized dromaeosaurid, with adults measuring up to 2.07 m (6.8 ft) long, 0.5 m (1.6 ft) high at the hip, and weighing up to 15 kg (33 lb). The skull, which grew up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long, was uniquely up-curved, concave on the upper surface and convex on the lower. The jaws were lined with 26–28 widely spaced teeth on each side, each more strongly serrated on the back edge than the front.

Velociraptor, like other dromaeosaurids, had a large manus ('hand') with three strongly curved claws, which were similar in construction and flexibility to the wing bones of modern birds. The second digit was the longest of the three digits present, while the first was shortest. The structure of the carpal (wrist) bones prevented pronation of the wrist and forced the 'hands' to be held with the palmar surface facing inwards (medially), not downwards The first digit of the foot, as in other theropods, was a small dewclaw. However, whereas most theropods had feet with three digits contacting the ground, dromaeosaurids like Velociraptor walked on only their third and fourth digits. The second digit, for which Velociraptor is most famous, was highly modified and held retracted off of the ground. It bore a relatively large, sickle-shaped claw, typical of dromaeosaurid and troodontid dinosaurs. This enlarged claw, which could be over 6.5 cm (2.6 in) long around its outer edge, was most likely a predatory device used to tear into prey, possibly delivering a fatal blow.

As in other dromaeosaurs, Velociraptor tails had long bony projections (prezygapophyses) on the upper surfaces of the vertebrae, as well as ossified tendons underneath. The prezygapophyses began on the tenth tail (caudal) vertebra and extended forward to brace four to ten additional vertebrae, depending on position in the tail. These were once thought to fully stiffen the tail, forcing the entire tail to act as a single rod-like unit. However, at least one specimen has preserved a series of intact tail vertebrae curved sideways into an S-shape, suggesting that there was considerably more horizontal flexibility than once thought.

Battle vs. Night of the Living Dead Survivors (by GSFB)
The alpha female of the Velociraptor pack sniffed the air, sensning the troubled souls that guarded the two story home in the dark. The moon illuminatd her eyes, the cool air turning into white puffs as she snorted. As she called out to the rest of her pack to take up positions and explore the surroundings of the house, she overheard the humans inside.

"What was that?"

"Now what?"

"Quiet Cooper! I'm trying to..."

The Alpha stopped, looking at the closest window of the house. Between several wooden boards, it saw one of the humans, a tall man with a winchester rifle in his large hands. The man looked confused and stunned before the beast turned and darted away, heading towards the underbrush.

"What is it?"

"I don't...I can't say."

"What do you mean you can't say? We've been fighting those ghouls all night up here, boarding this place up instead of staying in the cellar where we belong. I swear I-

"Shut up! I don't know what I saw."

"I saw it. It looked like...like a dinosaur of something."

"A what, kid?"

"Like a dinosaur Mr. Cooper, but small, man sized. I must be seeing things."

"You got that right you crazed country poke. Now let's-

The sound of the Alpha leaping onto the tree anc screeching commands stopped the humans bickering. Immediately other raptors jumped high onto the top of the house, sniffing, searching for ways to enter the house. As the Alpha noticed a set of windows nearby, she heard the big man command one of the others, and she heard the latter run up the stars and burst into a room. It sensed fire, and then saw the windows open, and a man leaning outwards, looking around. The Alpha crouched. When the man turned towards her, she ran full tilt, slicing his hand holding the molotov cocktail with a flick of her giant foot claw. The man let out a scream that lasted for a second before his chest was cut open with the other foot. Removing the body from the opening and letting it drop, she and two others entered.

She heard a commotion from downstairs. A window had been penetrated, and gunfire. She heard the dying screeches of one of her pack, followed by another shot. Silence.

"...It is a dinosaur!"

"What in the name of-

One of the Velociraptors fell from the bed it was one, which made the alpha snap. She turned, hearing the big man approach. She gave quiet commands to her pack mates and then opened the door and went into the dark hallway, waiting. The Big man emerged from below, not seeing the raptor in the dark. The Alpha watched, barely breathing, waiting until the big man was ready to attack her packmates, which stood in the other room, in full view. When the big man saw the other dinosaurs, he yelled and fired twice with his rifle. Before he could cock it for another try, the alpha sprang upon him, knocking him to the ground and evicerating him to ribbons. The Alpha, sensing that this big man was the leader of the humans, continued to shred his corpse, hoping to set an example among both her reptilian peers and her prey below. Her two packmates, who evaded the shots of the winchester with cheetah speed, entered the hallway and went towards the stairs. Then another window crashed, and once again gunshots were fired. This time however, the rest of the pack entered the house, and the Alpha heard them shredding his flesh and breaking his bones. Having finished with the corpse of the big man, the Alpha leaped down onto the stairs and entered the living room below.

She bipassed her pack, exploring the rest of the house, starting with the kitchen. She sensed someone was nearby, indeed two. Females. It did not take her long to find them in the kitchen, one of the a teenaged girl trying to find something to defend herself with, the other in a somewhat shocked state, holding a butcher knife. The Teenager screeched, running towards the cellar door. The other female did not move, did not even blink and eye. One of the pack entered the kitchen, blood smeared on its faces and taloned hands. The alpha snorted an order, and then proceeded towards the teenaged female. The other Velociraptor pounced on Barbara, and the girl stabbed repeatedly with the knife, but the dinosaur bit her heard almost clear from the rest of her soon to be corpse. Another entered the kitchen and joined in the feast.

The Alpha was quick, yet she did not allow herself to overcome the girl just yet; she wanted to know where the others were, and what that odd, almost pleasurable smell was coming from below. Perhaps this female could lead her. Soon she saw the girl enter through a door and try to shut it. The Alpha put her leg between the door and the threshold and forced it open. The girl was thrown back to the wall and slashed through the gut, spilling her intestines. The Raptor finished her off, then turned to the stairs. It stepped down quietly, observing her surroundings. Soon it saw the body of a woman on the ground, freshly dead, her blood filling a large spot of the cold concrete floor. Her eyes widened, the sense of blood quickening her pulse. As she stepped down on the floor, she saw what brought the human down.

A little girl, a pale, greenish, odd smelling girl, chewing away at the face of the dead woman.

The Alpha had never encountered a human being like this one. It sensed no pulse, no heart beat, it smelled dead. Yet it moved, and its smell was also oddly pleasant. The girl eyed her menacingly, and picked up a sharp tool blade, walking slowly towards the velocirpator. The Alpha roared, angered at the fearlessness the girl smelled of, and charged her. With one kick of her legs she knocked the girl almost through the wall. She clawed her from neck to navel, spilling everything, yet the little girl, neither in pain nor fear, continued her attack. As she struck the alpha she recieved more and more savage wounds, yet did not go down. Finally the alpha stabbed her head with a talon and pierced the bone, and the girl dropped like a cold steak.

Before the Alpha could enjoy her meal, the dead woman began to stir. The Raptor, stunned, moved back. Her brain could not comprehed what she was seeing, what she was sensing; another dead human, rising back to life! Looking back at the girl, noting the head wound that killed her, and then turning back, she pounced on the rising woman, putting a toe claw through her temple. The body moved no more. Not wanting anymore suprises, she screeched more orders, and ran upstairs to command her pack.

However, by the time she got back up the stairs, the raptors were skittish, growling and making high pitched noises, running to her in fear.

Outside, hundreds, thousands of the formerly dead were walking slowly, awkwardly, stiffly towards the 2-story home, where the new Night of the Living Dead Survivors would make their final stand...

Expert's Opinion
Please consider a contribution by writing an expert's opinion as to why the Velociraptors won.

To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.

Battle vs. Zombie (Romero) (by Goddess of Despair)
Velociraptors     Zombies-  x 60 The velociraptors shiver at the growing sounds of moaning. The alpha female of the pack looks out the destroyed window of the building and examines the incoming horde. The zombies slowly advanced on the house, compacted in a huge wave of decaying flesh. The alpha female took a whiff of the air and smelled the delightful smell of food. Surly creatures that slow couldn’t harm the pack much. The alpha female smiled and barked orders to the pack and they immediately sped out from the building, directly into the horde.

The pack leapt onto the first few zombies and crushed the first five undead. One velociraptor took his claw out of a zombie’s head and turned to the side only to be grabbed by the throat by a zombie. The velociraptor struggled but couldn’t escape the grip of the corpse as 4 other zombies joined in and chewed away at the flesh around the dinosaur’s neck.

Another velociraptor rushed forward and leapt onto a zombie that was bent over the dead velociraptor and enjoying the meat. The raptor pounced onto the zombie and sank its claw into the zombie’s back. Surprisingly, the creature ignored the injury and continued eating. The velociraptor was shocked and couldn’t react when another zombie grabbed its back and started to bite at the creature’s sides. The raptor stomped on the zombie’s foot and thrusted its claw into it, but the zombie continued to dig deeper into the beast’s side until it fell over dead.

The pack was getting crushed and the alpha female knew it. She swept a zombie off his feet with her tail and bit into another zombie’s skull, swallowing some of the meat before the corpse fell to the ground beneath her. She signaled her remaining pack mates and they attempted to flee the carnage. One velociraptor is unlucky and trips on top of one of the corpses. The zombies fell upon it in an instant, preventing it from standing. It cried out for help as another velociraptor walked into view, however this one was pale and had several pieces of flesh missing. The velociraptor screamed in pain as its undead brethren joined in on the feast.

Later that day…

The alpha female and her final pack mate have at last escaped the sound of moaning undead and are exhausted. The alpha female had grown pale and her pack mate had fallen to the ground exhausted. The alpha female looked upon her pack mate but suddenly, she saw everything differently. She looked upon the uninfected velociraptor and stood over it as the zombie virus stripped her subconscious of any thoughts except for one thought…food… She bent over and tore a chunk of flesh out of her pack mate’s throat. Now she was in a new pack, a pack not of the living, but a pack of the dead.

Expert's Opinion
The zombies were able to prevail over the velociraptors thanks to their virus. The velociraptors were smart, but no smart enough to understand how to prevent themselves from getting infected. Even if the velociraptors eliminated the entire horde of undead, they would eat the zombie meat and thus infect themselves with the virus. The velociraptors are tough opponents, but in the end they can't outsmart the zombie virus.

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Battle vs. Wolfen (by GSFB)
Wolfen:

Velociraptor:

It had been over a minute since the Velociraptor pack started hunting the Alpha female wolfen. They had tried to hit her with the usual trick of sending a decoy out, a distraction, while the other raptors charged in from the sides and behind, but the wolfen leapt into the trees before they could strike. They jumped onto the branches of the tree but the wolfen was gone in a second. The chased her, not realizing that she was leading them into a trap.

The Alpha female made sure that her pack was downwind of the reptiles, so that they weren't detected. She ran but not constantly, always waiting for the raptors to catch up. She had never hunted such as these before; so clever, so quick. Like her kind. She worried that soon they would suspect something, that they would wise up to the ambush, but before they could do so, they were in the kill zone.

The Raptors encircled her. She glared, hissing, the hairs on her back and neck sticking up, her clawed extended. The Raptors studied her, extremely curious. They had never hunted a mammal like this before. Indeed, they had never hunted anything like this before. She was ffast, as fast as they were, if not faster, and se could get to full speed much more rapidly. It was a sif they were hunting a mighty wind. And she was smart, as smart as human prey, if not smarter, and without the fear that humans had around raptor kind. It unsettled them, this creature almost without fear, hardly any. It was then that they suspected a trap.

Too late.

With a howl from the alpha female, right when the raptors charged in masse, the Wolfen leaped from the trees onto their prey. Three raptors were knocked down, struggling to get up while the wolfen bite down and thrashed them with razor sharp claws. The fallen raptors struck back with their arms and their jaws, yet they were coming off the worst: ribs were cracked or broken in wolfen jaws, bellies were being shredded, one had a tail that was halfway cut off at the middle. Two of the raptors stood up and threw their assailants off, but one had serious cuts to the throat, and by the time it kicked the wolfen away, it was mere seconds away from its doom

Two wolfen fell on the alpha female Raptor, slicing her back, upper tail, and legs. The Female bite down on one wolfen's neck, ending its life . The other it rammed against a tree several times before it collapse. She finsihed him off with a big toe claw to the belly .

The Alpha female wolfen leaped towards one of the raptors, biting it in the eyes. She brought her foot claws down on the raptor's neck. In moments, the raptor was dead, but the female was cut deeply by its toe claws and teeth.

The Wolfen ran into the thick woods. The Alpha female Velociraptor screeched, ordering the last two members of her pack to follow. Sneering, she ran to her left, trying to encircle the prey.

The two lower rank raptors stopped after several seconds, sniffing the air. One cawed. As they walked silently, ready to pounce, a Wolfen leaned down from a low branch, his hind claws locked into the wood. This was the alpha male, the lagest member of the Pack. When he lowered, he snarled and sliced the Raptor's neck repeatedly .

The other Raptor turned around, but before it could strike the alpha female wolfen leapt passed, clawing its eyes. Another jumped on its side and bit down on a rib, breaking it. The Raptor fell down.

The Alpha Female Raptor arrived a few seconds later: no wolfen. She had heard the battle and the ensuing distress calls of the fallen comrade and made haste. She saw that one of her pack lied dead, the other, the alpha male, was thrashing about on the forest floor, blind and crippled with pain. She crept towards him, cawing to him, keeping a sharp eye and nose out.

A wolfen, the big alpha female, jumped down over the fallen raptor and ripped its throat out . Turning to the Raptor, it beared her fangs, her hair on the back sticking straight up. The Raptor reared, enraged, her face filled with malice. She raised her hand claws and made the first step to the Wolfen.

Predictable, the Wolfen thought. For all their smarts, they were still brute beasts, driven to bestial rage and robotic instinct. Not even as clever as human beings, she thought to herself. She smiled, a split second before the other two members of the pack came at the velociraptor from the sides, savaging her ribs and belly. To make sure she didn't overcome and kill two more of her pack, she leapt onto her head, forcing her left paw through the lower jaw, into the skull's braincase .

The Raptor dead, the Wolfen raised their blood soaked, satisfied faces to the full eclipse, and howled the song of their distant ancestors.

Winner: Wolfen

Expert's Opinion
TBA

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