Happy #FossilFriday! Time to geek out a little with #JurassicPark! Could dinosaurs like Velociraptor open doors? Assume you've supercharged the brain of a "raptor" and it knows the only thing between it and delicious children is a door. The question comes down to anatomy. (1)

By now it's no secret that the hand orientation of the JP #Velociraptors does not reflect our modern understanding of their wrist anatomy. Whatever, it's a movie and they're part frogs or whatever. But since we love to pick apart details, let's dig in here. (2)

Dinosaurs like Velociraptor had wrists like modern birds. The anatomical structure of their wrists oriented their hands so the palms always faced inward towards the midline of the body whether the arms were extended or tucked back. This is not the case with JP's raptors.(3)

"Raptor-like" dinosaurs (and many other theropods) would have been great at sarcastic clapping, but they couldn't have dribbled a basketball. The palms could not face downwards. No piano playing. No bicycle handlebars. Now let's look at Jurassic Park's doors. (4)

The handles are well designed for human manipulation, and if the JP raptors had anatomically correct wrists, their hands could not have grabbed and turned those handles. (5)

I think () it's more likely they would have used their snouts and mouths for manipulating objects, like modern corvids (who are brainy enough to use tools). But the real way to raptor-proof your dinosaur theme park?

*dramatic pause*

(6)

Round door knobs.

Because of their wrists, raptors couldn't twist their hands. A cast of a #Deinonychus hand in the below images demonstrates this. Checkmate, raptors!

#museumweek2020 #paleontology #paleontologist #dinosaur #fossil #velociraptor #Deinonychus @jurassicworld