History Literature / RaptorRed

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted. The herbivorous dinosaurs fight back when they are threatened, and they are very good at it too. Helps that this is written by a paleontologist who frequently points out in his works how ''dead wrong'' this trope is. The whip-tail in particular is especially vicious.

* ChekhovsGunman: ''Kronosaurus''. Raptor Red and her consort discover they can 'play' with the Kronos by baiting them into lunging out of the ocean. [[spoiler:Raptor Red later uses the trick to get an Acrocanthosaur eaten by a Kronosaur.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Several. The ''Astrosaurus'' that Raptor Red and her first mate kill [[spoiler:and her first mate's subsequent death]], an Acrocanthosaur's death at the hands of a ''Kronosaurus'' - even the scorpion that was killed by the ''Aegialodon''.

* ChekhovsGunman: ''Kronosaurus''.

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted. The herbivorous dinosaurs fight back when they are threatened, and they are very good at it too. Helps that this is written by a paleontologist who frequently points out in his works how ''dead wrong'' this trope is.
* HiddenDepths: The sliding-with-Troodons scene. "[[http://www.luisrey.ndtilda.co.uk/html/rapred.htm The concepts do not go together.]]"

* RedOniBlueOni: Raptor Red is the blue oni to her sister's red.

* MamaBear: Raptor Red's sister.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: The whip-tail. [[spoiler:After its first TailSlap knocks Raptor Red's sister down and she stops moving, [[MakeSureHesDead it closes in and hits her three more times.]]]]

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Mostly averted, since the author actually ''is'' a paleontologist. If anyone's crying, it's probably because they don't agree with Bakker's views or because [[ScienceMarchesOn Science Has Marched On]] - the book came out in 1995, and was pretty accurate up to that year.\\
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There was one flaw, but its only one that someone who really pays attention to paleontology would notice. ''Utahraptor'' was from the Barremian stages of the Early Cretaceous. ''Acrocanthosaurus'' was from the Aptian and Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. While most people (with the exception of some incredibly pedant paleontologists) will allow some overlap of dinosaur taxa from neighboring stages due to the patchiness of the fossil record, ''Acrocanthosaurus'' rose to prominence ''after'' ''Utahraptor''. Thereby making the ending where the Acros were nearly wiped out by plague allowing ''Utahraptor'' to dominate the continent temporally inconsistent. If anything, ''Utahraptor'' would have been the one to go first.

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted. Helps that this is written by a paleontologist who frequently points out in his works how ''dead wrong'' this trope is.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: A ''Bernissartia'' is a minor character.

* TurtlePower: One chapter focuses on a ''Trinitichelys''.

* StockDinosaurs: Pretty much limited to ''Deinonychus'', ''Iguanodon'' and arguably ''Utahraptor''. Generic ornithomimosaurs and a diplodocid appear as well. The other dinosaurs are much less familiar -- ''Acrocanthosaurus'' (a big theropod possibly related to ''Allosaurus''), ''Astrodon'' (a smallish-by-sauropod-standards relative of ''Brachiosaurus''), and the ankylosaur ''Gastonia'' (which hadn't even been described at the time the book was published).

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Acrocanthosaurus'', ''Kronosaurus'', ''Gastonia'', ''Aegialodon'', ''Trinitichelys'', ''Ornithodesmus'', ''Platypterygius'', ''Astrodon'', and ''Bernissartia''. The White Dactyl's species is implied to be an ''Ornithocheirus'' in the text. The unidentified segnosaur qualifies as well. Even ''Utahraptor'' itself is this to some extent.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Acrocanthosaurus'', ''Kronosaurus'', ''Gastonia'', ''Aegialodon'', ''Trinitichelys'', ''Ornithodesmus'', ''Platypterygius'', ''Astrodon'', and ''Bernissartia''. The White Dactyl's species is never given, but most depictions of him imply that he's an unspecified species of ornithocheirid. The unidentified segnosaur qualifies as well. Even ''Utahraptor'' itself is this to some extent.

* FrogsAndToads: A frog becomes a minor character in the chapters where the ''Aegialodon'' stars. [[spoiler:It ends up getting eaten by an ornithomimosaur.]]

* RetiredBadass: The Old Dactyl may be a homeless scavenger past his prime, but he's still a gigantic former alpha male that scares the piss out of pretty much every other carnivore that's familiar with his reputation. He pretty much just takes advantage of this [[ForTheLulz for fun]].

* ScienceMarchesOn:
** The book came out ''just'' before dromaeosaurids like Raptor Red and her kin were confirmed to have feathers. To be fair, it's just about the only birdlike trait the Utahraptors in this book ''don't'' have. That still doesn't stop other artists from drawing Red and the other dromaeosaurids with feathers, though.
** The taxon ''Ornithodesmus'' shows up in the book as a pterosaur. Turns out that it was actually a misidentified dromaeosaurid, the first named. The pterosaur material with the fossil has been named ''Istiodactylus''. Bakker was right about ''Istiodactylus'' being scavengers though.
** Therizinosaurs are depicted as featherless burrowers, and are referred to as "segnosaurs." They're now considered to have been feathered, although digging may be plausible. In addition, several of the illustrations depict them as quadrupeds, but it is now known that therizinosaurs were bipedal, like other theropods[[note]]Indeed, it used to be uncertain that therizinosaurs were theropods at all.[[/note]].

* GenreSavvy: Raptor Red's sister thinks the whip-tail is an easy target because it's alone and is basically ignoring the ''Utahraptor''s. Raptor Red, on the other hand, immediately feels uneasy, because an animal willing to go it alone and completely unconcerned by two predators probably has some kind of lethal defense mechanism. [[spoiler:[[MuggingTheMonster she's]] [[TailSlap right.]]]]

* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: There's a scene in which the normally isolated ''Utahraptor'' packs are drawn together by flowers that smell of carrion, during which time a giant red-snout female attempts to woo Raptor Red's consort. Raptor Red takes issue with this, and the consort is more than a little freaked out about the whole thing. When he and Raptor Red make it very clear that she isn't welcome, the giantess sadly leaves; the narration informs us that her size meant she'd been dealing with rejection the whole day.

* ShownTheirWork: The book is actually rather up to date on most paleontology knowledge, with the exception of a lack of feathers on the theropods. But then again the author ''is'' a paleontologist.

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted. Helps that Bakker does not believe in this trope AT ALL.

** The book came out ''just'' before dromaeosaurids like Raptor Red and her kin were confirmed to have feathers. To be fair, it's just about the only birdlike trait the Utahraptors in this book ''don't'' have. That still doesn't stop other artists from depicting Red and the other dromaeosaurids with feathers, though.

** The book came out ''just'' before dromaeosaurids like Raptor Red and her kin were confirmed to have feathers. To be fair, it's just about the only birdlike trait the Utahraptors in this book ''don't'' have.

** Therizinosaurs are depicted as featherless burrowers, and are referred to as "segnosaurs." They're now considered to have been feathered, although digging may be plausible.

** Therizinosaurs are depicted as featherless quadrupeds, and are referred to as "segnosaurs." They're now considered to have been feathered bipeds.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Kronosaurus'', ''Gastonia'', ''Aegialodon'', ''Trinitichelys'', ''Ornithodesmus'', ''Platypterygius'', ''Astrodon'', and ''Bernissartia''. The White Dactyl's species is never given, but most depictions of him imply that he's an unspecified species of ornithocheirid. The unidentified segnosaur qualifies as well.
* ShownTheirWork: The book is actually rather up to date on most paleontolgy knowledge, with the exception of a lack of feathers on the theropods. But then again the author ''is'' a paleontologist.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Gastonia'', ''Aegialodon'', ''Trinitichelys'', ''Ornithodesmus'', ''Platypterygius'', ''Astrodon'', and ''Bernissartia''. The White Dactyl's species is never given, but most depictions of him imply that he's an unspecified species of ornithocheirid. The segnosaur qualifies as well.