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Description
UPDATED PROFILE:

Dakotaraptor steini

The end of the Dinosaurs' reign was marked by a cataclysmic asteroid impact that wiped the awesome reptiles off the face of the Earth. However, right before that occurred, Hell Creek, home to such legends as Triceratops and T.rex were also home to one of the largest Dromaeosaurs that ever walked the earth: Dakotaraptor steini.

Its genus name is named after the state it was discovered in, South Dakota, and its species name after Walter W. Stein, a paleontologist from Florida.
In 2005, a fluvial bone deposit was discovered by paleontologist Robert DePalma, and it contained various bones, including some from a large Dromaeosaur. It was described 10 years later by DePalma. The fossil consisted of:
-Teeth
-A fragment of dorsal vertebra
-tail vertebra
-A complete foot claw and ungual claw (sickle claw)
-A complete left metatarsal
-A partially complete left forelimb;
-And a complete right femur, tibia, and fibula
Also found was supposedly the furcula (wishbone), but it's now known it was actually from a tortoise.

Published in a journal in October 2015, it was easily one of the most interesting finds. Though an interesting detail about this animal is that around a month before information about this raptor was shown to the public, Robert Fabiani, a modeler and Paleoartist for the now stagnant if not canceled park-building game Mesozoica, leaked the Dakotaraptor, calling it "the Dragon" before its information was shown to the public. Whether or not this led DePalma and the team to rush and publish the study is unknown. However, it shows truly scummy behavior on behalf of the Mesozoica developers.

Its discovery is interesting because it also fills in gaps in Hell Creek's ecosystem. For years a medium carnivore was absent from the Fossil Record in Hell Creek. Tyrannosaurus and juvenile T.rexes filled the niches of the larger carnivores in the ecosystem, with unspecified and smaller Dromaeosaurs and Troodontids were filling the role of the smaller carnivores. However, in the mid-2010s, when Dakotaraptor and Acheroraptor were described, we finally had a better idea of what the ecosystem of Hell Creek looked like. With these large Dromaeosaurs filling the niche of wolves or leopards and T.rexes filling the roles of lions or tigers.

This creature is as close as evolution ever got to producing the famous "Raptors" from Jurassic Park. More lightly built than other large raptors like the other giant Utahraptor and Achillobator. What was unique about this animal is that the ulna had quill knobs on it. Quill knobs are anchor points for large, pennaceous feathers. They resembled its distant and smaller relative Velociraptor. There is no other explanation other than the fact that this giant raptor was fully covered in feathers.

Whilst it's not the first giant raptor discovered, Achillobator and Utahraptor are around the same size, if not bigger than Dakotaraptor. It is, however, morphologically it is very different. Dakotaraptor is more like an upscaled Deinonychus than the more bulky Utahraptor. While only one incomplete skeleton is known from Dakotaraptor, there is one difference apparent in both dinosaurs, the infamous sickle claws. The claws on the second digits on Dakotaraptors feet show some distinct differences to its older cousin. The claw is a lot more curved than Utahraptor. Furthermore, there is an attachment point for a large tendon to have the claw swing down into its prey. An attachment point absent from Utahraptor's claw. This suggests Dakotaraptor probably preyed more like its smaller raptor relatives like Deinonychus and Dromaeosaurus itself, rather than Utahraptor who likely had a lot less control over how it used its sickle claw.

It was the last of the great Dromaeosaurs who continued to diversify even to this late point in Dinosaurs' reign. However, its time was cut short some 66,000,000 years ago when an asteroid the size of Mt.Everest smashed into the earth, marking the end of these infamous dinosaurs.
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Another Dromaeosaur. Easily one of my favorites of all the Dromaeosaurs.

This one's primary inspiration is primarily from arvalis 's Dakotaraptor from Saurian, with my own flair thrown in. I gave it a striped snout and an orange face, along with a bit of sexual dimorphism.
Now, to make one thing clear, I did not copy the textures pixel-for-pixel from the image. I literally just painted areas to try and get it close to the animal because I thought it looked cool. The textures were made by DinosaurManZT2 and modified by my acquaintance Lgcfm. I just painted on areas that needed to be touched up in photoshop.

In terms of the model changes. It's a bigger Deinonychus but slightly more robust. I made the back a bit bulkier, and I changed the shape of the snout slightly, lengthened the tail frond, and curved the frond down slightly. We really don't know exactly what the dinosaur's skull looked like, so I made it sort of a mix of Deinonychus and Utahraptor, though a bit more on the Deinonychus side.

For Past Meets Present
Past Meets Present (Pt4 is Up) - The ZT2 Round Table

Original Model by Lgcfm and HENDRIX:
Deinonychus (Lgcfm) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

PS: Details about its discovery and Mesozoica:
youtu.be/7dz9uHM0tMk?t=366

Description
UPDATED PROFILE:

Dakotaraptor steini

The end of the Dinosaurs' reign was marked by a cataclysmic asteroid impact that wiped the awesome reptiles off the face of the Earth. However, right before that occurred, Hell Creek, home to such legends as Triceratops and T.rex were also home to one of the largest Dromaeosaurs that ever walked the earth: Dakotaraptor steini.

Its genus name is named after the state it was discovered in, South Dakota, and its species name after Walter W. Stein, a paleontologist from Florida.
In 2005, a fluvial bone deposit was discovered by paleontologist Robert DePalma, and it contained various bones, including some from a large Dromaeosaur. It was described 10 years later by DePalma. The fossil consisted of:
-Teeth
-A fragment of dorsal vertebra
-tail vertebra
-A complete foot claw and ungual claw (sickle claw)
-A complete left metatarsal
-A partially complete left forelimb;
-And a complete right femur, tibia, and fibula
Also found was supposedly the furcula (wishbone), but it's now known it was actually from a tortoise.

Published in a journal in October 2015, it was easily one of the most interesting finds. Though an interesting detail about this animal is that around a month before information about this raptor was shown to the public, Robert Fabiani, a modeler and Paleoartist for the now stagnant if not canceled park-building game Mesozoica, leaked the Dakotaraptor, calling it "the Dragon" before its information was shown to the public. Whether or not this led DePalma and the team to rush and publish the study is unknown. However, it shows truly scummy behavior on behalf of the Mesozoica developers.

Its discovery is interesting because it also fills in gaps in Hell Creek's ecosystem. For years a medium carnivore was absent from the Fossil Record in Hell Creek. Tyrannosaurus and juvenile T.rexes filled the niches of the larger carnivores in the ecosystem, with unspecified and smaller Dromaeosaurs and Troodontids were filling the role of the smaller carnivores. However, in the mid-2010s, when Dakotaraptor and Acheroraptor were described, we finally had a better idea of what the ecosystem of Hell Creek looked like. With these large Dromaeosaurs filling the niche of wolves or leopards and T.rexes filling the roles of lions or tigers.

This creature is as close as evolution ever got to producing the famous "Raptors" from Jurassic Park. More lightly built than other large raptors like the other giant Utahraptor and Achillobator. What was unique about this animal is that the ulna had quill knobs on it. Quill knobs are anchor points for large, pennaceous feathers. They resembled its distant and smaller relative Velociraptor. There is no other explanation other than the fact that this giant raptor was fully covered in feathers.

Whilst it's not the first giant raptor discovered, Achillobator and Utahraptor are around the same size, if not bigger than Dakotaraptor. It is, however, morphologically it is very different. Dakotaraptor is more like an upscaled Deinonychus than the more bulky Utahraptor. While only one incomplete skeleton is known from Dakotaraptor, there is one difference apparent in both dinosaurs, the infamous sickle claws. The claws on the second digits on Dakotaraptors feet show some distinct differences to its older cousin. The claw is a lot more curved than Utahraptor. Furthermore, there is an attachment point for a large tendon to have the claw swing down into its prey. An attachment point absent from Utahraptor's claw. This suggests Dakotaraptor probably preyed more like its smaller raptor relatives like Deinonychus and Dromaeosaurus itself, rather than Utahraptor who likely had a lot less control over how it used its sickle claw.

It was the last of the great Dromaeosaurs who continued to diversify even to this late point in Dinosaurs' reign. However, its time was cut short some 66,000,000 years ago when an asteroid the size of Mt.Everest smashed into the earth, marking the end of these infamous dinosaurs.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Another Dromaeosaur. Easily one of my favorites of all the Dromaeosaurs.

This one's primary inspiration is primarily from arvalis 's Dakotaraptor from Saurian, with my own flair thrown in. I gave it a striped snout and an orange face, along with a bit of sexual dimorphism.
Now, to make one thing clear, I did not copy the textures pixel-for-pixel from the image. I literally just painted areas to try and get it close to the animal because I thought it looked cool. The textures were made by DinosaurManZT2 and modified by my acquaintance Lgcfm. I just painted on areas that needed to be touched up in photoshop.

In terms of the model changes. It's a bigger Deinonychus but slightly more robust. I made the back a bit bulkier, and I changed the shape of the snout slightly, lengthened the tail frond, and curved the frond down slightly. We really don't know exactly what the dinosaur's skull looked like, so I made it sort of a mix of Deinonychus and Utahraptor, though a bit more on the Deinonychus side.

For Past Meets Present
Past Meets Present (Pt4 is Up) - The ZT2 Round Table

Original Model by Lgcfm and HENDRIX:
Deinonychus (Lgcfm) | ZT2 Download Library Wiki | Fandom

PS: Details about its discovery and Mesozoica:
youtu.be/7dz9uHM0tMk?t=366