Deinonychus Field Sketch
Imagine: The dream of twentieth-century science fiction has finally been realized, and time travel to the distant past is now possible. You have been chosen to travel back to the Cretaceous period, which rep- resents a span of time from about 145 to 66 millionyears ago. In particular, your task is to journey to the Early Cretaceous of midwestern North America to study one of the most iconic of all predatory dinosaurs: Deinonychus, the ‘terrible claw’. As you watch a family group of Deinonychus rest near a riverbank, you jot down notes and sketches in your notebook – from a safe distance, of course. What are the first things you notice about their form and behaviour? What surprises you the most about what you’re observing?