I got cast in a one-act play called Gorgeous Raptors. The play makes several references to raptor wings, beaks, and claws. However, I cannot find anything that says that raptors even have claws and think that perhaps the author may have been thinking of a teradactal or something.
So, did raptor dinosaurs ever have wings?
The word actually refers to birds of prey- hawks, eagles, falcons. Prior to the movie release of “Jurrasic Park” it was a somewhat obscure word, and never used in non-technical writing to mean anything except a hawk. Even today it is incorrect to use the term to refer to purely terrestrial predators without making it quite clear this is what you mean.
So yeah, raptors have wings and beaks and claws and feathers. They are hawks.
Just in case that wasn;t plain enough.
Unless the play specifcally refers to dinosaurs, you probably have a confused view of what the word raptor means. Understandable if you are under 20.
To add to what Blake mentions, the reference of “raptor” to dinosaurs comes primarily from Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park wherein he referred to Velociraptor as ‘Raptors’. Popular paleontologists such as Robert Bakker picked up on this common name, and started using it as well. Personally, I abhor its use as such, and prefer to limit the use to the actual birds of prey, as Blake described.
So, it depends on what sort of “raptor” your play refers to. If the bird, then yes, they had (have) wings and beaks and claws and stuff. If it refers to Velociraptor, then it had claws (relatively formidable claws, at that) and maybe feathers, but neither beaks nor wings.
The play is definately referring to dinosaurs, as can be show in notes about extinction and what not.
The play is apparently not about dinosaurs.
http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=67
http://www.youngplaywrights.org/pr02.htm
Sounds a bit deep and arty for me, but without the script it seems to be talking about entirely fantastic human-hawk chimaeras.
Have you actually read the script? Do these references to “Raptor Girls” and the Jewish girl Kaballah seem familiar in any way?
[sort of on-topic]
Archaeopteryx and a few other maniraptorids had wings…[/soo-t]
True, though “raptors” as used in reference to non-avian dinosaurs typically refers to dromaeosaurs - Deinonychus, Velociraptor, Dromaeosaurus, etc. This largely because of Crichton’s instance on shortening Velociraptor to “raptor” as a sort of common name, and the fact that all dromaeosaurs look fairly similar, what with the sickle claws and all. Archaeopteryx and all true birds are typically placed in a sister group (Avialae) to the Deinonychosauria (which contains Dromaeosauridae).
So, even though some maniraptorans were winged (including, of course, the true raptors), none of them are typically considered “raptors” in the Crichton-esque sense.
Yes, I have read the script. The play also makes reference to things such as troglodites, Pangea, and extinction. Those seem to be yet more clues indicating dinosaurs.
If we assume it is not a work of fantasy they are actually clues indicating an absence of dinosaurs and in fact an absence of any scientific consistency at all. Troglodytes are cavemen/primitive humans. From a scientific perspective by the time anything worthy of the name troglodyte appeared it was well after the last of the terrestrial dinosaurs rang down the curtain. Of course by the time troglodytes appeared Pangaea itself had long since ceased to exist. This script has the scientific integrity of a “Flintstones” episode.
But clearly this is a work of fantasy. Nothing has any scientific basis, much less the demi-human raptor girls. Since they have beaks and feathers, and absent any other evidence, we have to conclude that they are in fact human-hawk hybrids and not human-dinosaur hybrids. You apparently misinterpreted the script.
But the OP has been asked and answered. If you want help interpreting the play can I suggest you start another thread over in Café Society?
It just sounds like the play is playing with the fact that Raptor refers both to bird’s of prey and more recently to a group of dinosaurs. Probably influenced by the current view that Dinosaurs are more like birds than reptiles.
What part are you playing?
The current view is that birds are reptiles, and descendants of dinosaurs or a very close relative of the dinos.