My theory about the Deinonychus!

[Notabot]

Hello :D

In my free time, I often study natural sciences, including paleontology.AndOne of my absolute favorite dinosaurs is the Deinonychus
For those who don't know the Deinonychus:
The Deinonychus is a dinosaur that grew up to 3 meters long and 80 cm tall and belonged to the Dromaeosauridae family.The Deinonychus lived around 123 to 110 million years ago and was particularly notable for the sickle-shaped claws on its hind legs, which grew up to 12 cm long and for which the Dromaeosauridae (or raptors ) were known.Another special feature is that the Deinonychus fundamentally changed our understanding of dinosaurs.After its discovery, dinosaurs were no longer regarded as slow, lazy animals, but as very active creatures.

And now for my theory:
A few months ago, I saw a YouTube video about the Deinonychus and decided to do a little research When I finally looked at the anatomy of the Deinonychus, I started comparing it to other dinosaurs (please don't ask why ).And then I noticed that the hand structure of the Deinonychus is exactly the same as that of the Archaeopteryx (basically the first bird that ever existed).And Archaeopteryx was apparently also a good climber.So I thought to myself, “Hmm... maybe it could do that too...”
In any case, its body was perfectly suited for it: strong legs, a huge, powerful claw, hands that were perfect for climbing.I also looked up where it lived. Unfortunately, I didn't find much, except for the information that it lived in swampy areas.And this ability would be perfect there, as they could move silently and unseen in the trees.They could lie in wait for their prey from the trees and then jump on them from above.
I know this all sounds pretty crazy, but I think it's possible. What do you think?

  Btw: I'm not a professional or anything in this field.I just do it as a hobby.If anyone here is very knowledgeable about this or even works in this field, feel free to contact me.

Soooo... this is a really long text... I hope u enyoyed :D

Bye 

Translated with DeepL translator

[Grimmgall]

It's a little unfortunate to me that we do not know much about paleospecies' habits, temperaments, and behavior, yet. If we could theoretically perform remote viewing in a safe manner, we could potentially unlock the ability to see dinosaurs and other paleospecies in real life and observe their behavior and environments. Unfortunately, I do not believe remote viewing is currently quite advanced yet, and there could be real danger involved in attempting to remote view dinosaurs. Still, your theory is very interesting and quite plausible.

[PALEOKNIGHT]

I love this vision. It’s true that we don’t know much about behavior of extinct species, but that’s where the most fun part about Paleontology comes: Speculation 

What you described seems plausible to me. Reminds me of how Jaguars hunt. Pretty big animals that are master climbers, and who do live in wetlands. If you search up videos of jaguars hunting alligators you will find plenty where they jump off trees right into the river. Now this opens up the question if they could swim…

[Notabot]

I love this vision. It’s true that we don’t know much about behavior of extinct species, but that’s where the most fun part about Paleontology comes: Speculation 

What you described seems plausible to me. Reminds me of how Jaguars hunt. Pretty big animals that are master climbers, and who do live in wetlands. If you search up videos of jaguars hunting alligators you will find plenty where they jump off trees right into the river. Now this opens up the question if they could swim…

Yeah, this is so true! I love spaculating abt dinosaurs! And what u said with jaguars there comes my idea from. And if u meant the Deinonychus with ur question: personally i think they couldnt swim bcs of there anatomy. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Deinonychus_ewilloughby.png/250px-Deinonychus_ewilloughby.png

[virtualpet2001]

Very interesting theory! i love seeing theorizing on how prehistoric animals would have behaved in the wild

it is harder than i expected to look up what makes land animals good swimmers, but it seems that deinonychus would have a hard time with it due to walking on two legs instead of four. four-legged animals seem to be MUCH better at swimming...!

[Grimmgall]

Not entirely true, as ducks, for example, are amazing swimmers despite being bipedal land animals. I'm actually quite curious for an explanation as to why exactly a deinonychus's anatomy would cause it to not be a good swimmer, especially in its territory, when compared to similar feathered animals such as ducks. Would it be their proportions compared to ducks and alligators, per se? The specific arrangement of their anatomy?

[virtualpet2001]

this made me do more research into the swimming capabilities of animals and it actually expanded my knowledge further

For birds i would imagine that the primary reason they are buoyant is due to their hollow bones, along with the water repelling oil that covers the feathers of aquatic birds... there were land dwelling dinosaurs with hollow bones but deinonychus was not one of them. since deinonychus lived in a swamp environment then hydrophobic feathers may have been possible though.

I was mostly basing my assumption off the fact that bipedal simians are VERY bad at swimming compared to most mammals. upon further research there are bipedal mammals that are very good swimmers - kangaroos and pangolins! both of those animals have strong tails which i think is the other component that great apes don't have.

in conclusion it seems that deinonychus actually would have been able to swim IF it was able to prevent its feathers from getting waterlogged...