Velociraptor

More like Velochillaptor, chilling
A little step back from the more flamboyant version I did prior, but I am keeping the bald head, not only cus it looks badass, but because it could kill prey as big as - or larger than itself, meaning it would gut-dive, getting blood all over its pretty head-fluff.

Back before we knew the wide diversity of these dinosaurs, we were kind of spoiled by the "killer claw", now we see that this claw is quite common in a wide variety of Eumaniraptorid species, but also quite small. I have proposed in my Ornitholested drawing that in many of these it functions as a climbing hook, for the arboreal life that would spur flight - but - in Dromaeosauridae this claw is truly an edge-giving weapon

Deinonychus has been known, by fossil record, to bring down Tenontosaurus
Velociraptor has been known, by fossil record, to bring down Protoceratops (albeit, dying in the process)

It is safe to assume these very large claws were not climbing tools, but cutting blades allowing relatively lightweight predators to take down prey much heavier than themselves, by grabbing on with their hands, for then to rapidly kick-slice with their toes, resulting in wide open gashes that would bleed profusely

A predator like Velociraptor would have made its fauna unfair to the smaller herbivores. Let Troodontids poke at proto-squirrels and whatnot, Velociraptor is relaxing a bit, before going out after some big, fat Protoceratops

(and yes, vertical pupil. In both mammals and birds, pupils seem to evolve fast and suddenly, so there is not a lot of oportunity to predict it. Same for my Rhabdodon, with a fitting horizontal goat-pupil)

Will I ever shut up?
Yes, eventually I will!