As the Raptors embark on their first trip to the NBA finals, a University of Alberta paleontologist takes a closer look at what made their namesake the velociraptors such a successful group of predatory dinosaurs. Pictured is an artist’s impression released in 2015 by the ministry of land and resources in China, showing a reconstruction of the dinosaur Zhenyuanlong suni, a cousin of the velociraptor, from the early Cretaceous period (about 125 million years ago).