DinoCache Series #12 - Daisy the Deinonychus Traditional Cache

This is the twelfth in a series of caches called DinoCaches. I like dinosaurs. Each cache should have some sort of very cheaply made plastic dinosaur inside. Please leave the dinosaur in the container. The dinosaur inside this one is a Deinonychus called Daisy. Daisy is the youngest dinosaur yet in the DinoCache Series. There is a reason the cache is where it is. Can you work out why it was put there? Please handle with the utmost care and replace exactly as you found it.

• The name Deinonychus means ‘terrible claw’, this refers to the large, hooked claw found on the hind feet.

• Deinonychus lived in the early Cretaceous Period, around 110 million years ago.

• Deinonychus is part of the same family of dinosaurs as the Velociraptor.

• The first Deinonychus fossils were found in 1931 in southern Montana but it wasn’t until 1969 that studies were published and it was officially named. Other Deinonychus fossils have since been found in Oklahoma and other parts of North America.

• Deinonychus reached around 3.4 metres (11 feet) in length and 73 kg (170 lb) in weight.

• Deinonychus had around 60 teeth and studies suggest that it had about the same bite force as an alligator.

• Studies of the Deinonychus helped lead to the widely accepted theory that birds descended from dinosaurs