Utahraptor

Utahraptor was the largest member of the theropod dinosaur family Dromaeosauridae. It lived in North America, during the Early Cretaceous Period. It has appeared in two episodes of Jurassic Fight Club: Raptor's Last Stand and Biggest Killers.

In Jurassic Fight Club
In JFC, the Utahraptors were portrayed as being vicious predators.

Raptor's Last Stand
In this episode, a Utahraptor is depicted battling with a Gastonia. First, they show how Robert Gaston discovered the Gastonia, and how well-protected and fully-armoured it really was. Then, afterwards, they talked about Utahraptor's discovery, and how its discovery came as a shock to the scientists whom had discovered it; the largest dromaeosaur known up to that time was Deinonychus, and Utahraptor was 6 times heavier, and 3 times longer, than the aforementioned Deinonychus. After the scientists were finished with the talking part, they then got to the main gist of the episode: The reconstruction of the fight.

The Utahraptor is first seen walking up to the Gastonia, attempting to ambush it. However, this first plan of attack fails, as his tactic is foiled when the Gastonia's pterosaur bodyguards see it, and fly away, signalling an alarm to the Gastonia, in the process. Then, the Utahraptor charges into the fray. He bites the Gastonia on one of its frong legs. The Gastonia roars in pain, and it tries to manoevre. However, the Utahraptor is literally right on top of it. He then scratches the Gastonia on the underbelly, with his very sharp, Edward Scissorhands-like hand claws. For a while, it appears that the Utahraptor has the upper hand in this fight, and that he is going to win the day, defeating the Gastonia. However, then, the Gastonia catches the Utahraptor, in its deadly anti-raptor scissors. It shreds its legs apart. Then, the Utahraptor slinks away, defeated. The Gastonia has managed to win the fight. However, in the end, neither Utahraptor nor Gastonia died from injuries sustained during the battle: Instead, both of them died from the ongoing drought that was plaguing their ecosystem, at the moment.

Biggest Killers
In this episode (which actually premiéred before the other main episode, Raptor's Last Stand), the Utahraptor is examined, as one of the 5 deadliest theropod dinosaurs, of all time. It is shown to have taken over from the Allosaurus, which had previously been the top predator, earlier on, during the Late Jurassic Period. The Utahraptor's large size is always stressed during this episode. The programme emphasizes the greater amount of sheer power and force that it had, compared to other dromaeosaurids, such as Deinonychus, Dromaeosaurus, and Velociraptor. However, it is also depicted as being slower than the smaller raptors, mainly due to its larger size, and its more heavily-built body, particularly in its leg bones. However, it is still a very deadly dinosaur, and that is the reason as to why, exactly, it was featured, in this episode.

Trivia

 * The Utahraptor was discovered in 1993, just scarcely a few months before the hit blockbuster Stephen Spielberg movie Jurassic Park came out. At the time, scientists and critics had both complained over how much larger the film's "Velociraptors" were, when they were compared to the real-life animals. However, the discovery of Utahraptor really helped to justify the overly-large size of Spielberg's raptors, a whole lot. (However, it should also be noted that the movie's screenplay was actually written before the discovery of the Utahraptor, thus it couldn't possibly have been influenced, by it. The raptors in the movies were actually based on Deinonychus).


 * Utahraptor's name, just like all other dinosaurs' names ending with the suffix "raptor", has several interpreted English translations. These include: "Utah Plunderer", "Utah Thief", "Utah Raider", "Utah Raper", "Utah Captor", "Utah Robber", and "Utah Hunter". This is due to there being countless many words in English that describe the act of stealing something; However, in the Latin language, there is only one word, for this: "raptor".