Scott Hartman has blown everybody’s mind with his new skeletal restoration of the intriguing giant dromeosaur. I seized the opportunity to actually “finish” my “Archaeopteryx Family” mural touring with the recent show by Silver Plume Exhibitions’ “Dinosaurs Take Flight, The Art of Archaeopteryx” and that might be arriving to your town very  soon, albeit (for the time being) still with the old incomplete mural… The reason it was incomplete was not the mystery surrounding Utahraptor: it was meant to show only part of it so the size would be somehow more appreciated and the rest of Archie’s family highlighted…

But, since Jim Kirkland presented it for the first time, given the new evidence, and having been requested by many,  I can show the new, full Utahraptor in all its weird glory.  Since Dakotaraptor is mostly unknown (and partly a chimaera), this the better known, ultimate giant dromeosaur! I say “weird” because Scott has shown us an unusually large-headed monster with limbs that are actually not what we were expecting. The animal is powerful indeed, but the hands and feet are small by comparison… all the force lays in the head, and short torso. The tail is also not as long as previously thought and more flexible, without those Velociraptor and Deinonychus stiffing rods.

So here, presenting it for the first time: the full mural! I don’t thing there’s a weirder, more magnificent  and diverse family in the animal kingdom… I’d like to add more members in the future!