Dromaeosauridae were nimble feathered hunters that dominated 100 million years

When and where

Dromaeosauridae lived from roughly 167 to 66 million years ago, spanning the Middle Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. Fossil finds across North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and even Australia show the family had a truly global reach. Early members such as those from the Late Jurassic of Europe were already feathered and lightly built, while the best-known forms flourished in the Cretaceous of Mongolia and North America.

How we know

The first dromaeosaurid fossils came from the Early Cretaceous of England, but the group did not enter the spotlight until the 1920s, when the American Museum of Natural History recovered the famous Velociraptor and Oviraptor skeletons from the Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia. In 1969, John Ostrom published a landmark study on Deinonychus that argued these animals were active, warm-blooded predators. That paper triggered the dinosaur renaissance and the eventual acceptance that birds are living dinosaurs. Hundreds of specimens have since been described, from microraptorians with four feathered wings to the sail-backed Austroraptor of Argentina.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromaeosauridae

What set it apart

Members of Dromaeosauridae were small to medium-sized carnivores, ranging from about 0.5 to 6 metres in length. Their most distinctive feature was a large, sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each foot. This claw was retractable and kept off the ground during walking, ready to strike prey. The tail was long and stiffened by bony rods, acting as a balance pole during fast turns or leaps. Most species carried feathered wings on the forelimbs, and many had feathered tails. The skull was lightly built with dozens of curved, serrated teeth, and the large eye sockets suggest acute vision. A famous 2007 study of Velociraptor forearm quill knobs proved these animals had vaned feathers like modern birds.

For collectors and classrooms

A Dromaeosauridae model captures one of the most agile predator designs in the fossil record. Feathered replicas show the crested skull, sickle claw, and stiff tail that made these animals so distinctive. They suit a dinosaur lesson on the bird-dinosaur link or as a dynamic display piece that contrasts with heavy herbivores.

Pick up a detailed Dromaeosauridae figure here.