Here is Dromaeosaurus from the Royal Tyrrell Museum's Field Station attacking a Lambeosaurus.
These are the animals made famous by the movie Jurassic Park. They are now being commonly called "Raptors" by people, but this is incorrect and confusing. There is a group of birds already called Raptors (birds of prey). There are also other dinosaurs that are not dromaeosaurs that have the word raptor (e.g. Sinraptor) in them. They are properly caller dromaeosaurs.
Dromaeosaurs have a few things that make them different from other dinosaurs. First, they have bony rods in their tails that keep them stiff for most of the length of their tail. They also had very large hand claws that would have been perfect for ripping and holding onto prey animals. Even more deadly than that, they had a very large toe claw on their second toe that would have been able to cut deep gashes into their prey. This probably made them a very effective hunter.
The proof that they were good hunters is shown from the fact that they survived from the Early Cretaceous right to the end of the Late Cretaceous. They changed sizes, but the basic body plan stayed the same. The largest found so far is Utahraptor at about 6 meters. Most of the Dromaeosaurs found at the end of the Cretaceous were much smaller at about 2 meters (Velociraptor). Dromaeosaurs have been found in Asia, North America, and possibly Australia. This group includes Velociraptor, Dromaeosaurus, Saurornitholestes, Utahraptor, and Deinonychus. There are also at least two more kinds from Mongolia and two more from North America that have not been named yet.
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