Scientists have uncovered evidence of a raptor species in South Korea that surpasses even the formidable velociraptors of “Jurassic Park” fame in size.

Unlike the movie’s depiction of velociraptors, which paleontologists criticized for exaggerating their size, this real-life giant truly walks tall in the annals of prehistoric discovery.

Named Fujianipus yingliangi, the newly identified raptor stands at a remarkable hip height of five feet nine inches, meaning it would have towered over an average adult human. Stretching to an impressive length of 16 feet, it boasts a size nearly triple that of its Hollywood counterparts.

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“Imagine something like that coming at you at full speed,” Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist from the University of Queensland’s Dinosaur Lab, told The Telegraph. “When people think of raptor dinosaurs, they most likely think of those in the Jurassic Park movies — human-sized, muscly, aggressive hunters.”

He said this raptor was about 16 feet long, with six-foot-long legs, “far exceeding the size of the raptors depicted in Jurassic Park.”

The groundbreaking discovery was made possible not through the traditional means of unearthing bones, but through the meticulous study of ancient footprints. Left behind in the Fujian Province of southeastern China, these tracks were first identified in 2020 by a diligent research team led by associate professor Lida Xing from China University of Geosciences. 

By analyzing the size of the footprints and the distance between each stride, researchers deduced the existence of this colossal raptor. The distinctive two-toed tracks, characteristic of the raptor family, were compared with similar footprints found across Asia and even as far as North and South America and Europe.