Utahraptor

Up Utahraptor is a member of the Dromaeosauride dinosaur family, from the Theropoda suborder and the Saurischia order.  The Utahraptor genus was only recently discovered in 1991, making it one of the most recently discovered of all dinosaurs.  The utahraptor holotype is only partial, despite the discovery of a fairly well preserved skeleton;  including skull fragments, a tibia, claws, and some tail fragments.  Utahraptor dinosaurs lived during the upper Barremian stage of the early Cretaceous period, or about 132-119 million years ago.  They were about six and a half metres in length fully grown, with a huge specialised curved claw on the second toe that would have measured about 24 centimetres in extension.  This huge claw, together with their impressive length and their height of about two metres, would have likely made them a very successful predator during their time. 

The toe joints of the Utahraptor were specially enlarged to allow its large claw to be raised while running, while also allowing it to be extended to the front during times of attack.  The Utahraptor also had a long tail that enabled it to be balanced while it was kicking, and this combination of killer claw and balancing tail would have been an ideal combination for this caniverous dinosour.  With one swift kick from a Utahraptor's claw, it could kill animals much larger than itself, with single cuts of up to five or six feet in length.  The full scientific name of Utahrapror is Utahraptor ostrommaysi, which was named after two scientists:  John Ostrom of Yale University and Chris Mays of Dinamation international.  
The recent discovery of Utahraptor has made them a favourite inclusion in popular culture, and lots of people have become familiar with them through their appearance in television documentaries.  While the BBC series, Walking with Dinosaurs and the History channel series, Jurassic Fight Club are known to contain some anatomical inaccuracies, they are also where most people have become aware of this specific genus of dinosaur.  The film Jurassic Park was controversial at the time for having a Velociraptor dinosaur twice the size of any similar known species at the time, although the year the movie came out the Utahraptor - which was the right size - was found.  This mysterious case of fiction seemingly influencing real life will forever be linked with the mythology of the Utahraptor.