The dimensions of the hydraulic limb reflected what is known from the fossil record

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Like other dinos in its family, it had a distinctive sickle-shaped claw on the second toe which many have assumed was employed to disembowel victims.

But tests on a mechanical arm suggest this fearsome-looking appendage was probably used just to hang on to prey.

UK scientists report their experiments in the journal Biology Letters.

"This dispels the myth in place for some 40 years that this was a disembowelling claw - this is not the case," says Dr Phil Manning, from the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester.

"I'm saying that the primary function of this claw was to hold on to the prey, effectively like a climber's crampon," the curator of palaeontology told the BBC News website.

Dino kick

The Steven Spielberg movie took some liberties with its portrayal of Velociraptor.

The real creature belonged to the Dromaeosauridae, a family of small to medium-sized, lightly built and fast-running dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period (146 million to 65 million years ago) who appear from the fossil record to have been very effective predators.

There is even evidence some, such as Deinonychus, hunted in packs.

It's effectively like a fatal embrace

Dr Phil Manning

By kicking and slashing, it has been widely thought these creatures could quickly open up their unfortunate victims, either killing them outright or making them bleed so profusely death followed very quickly.

Dr Manning and his team tested the reputation on a robotic arm fitted with a life-like dromaeosaur claw. The set-up was based on detailed fossil measurements.

The mechanical limb mimicked the sort of kick that might have come from a 2m-long, 40kg Velociraptor. The Kevlar and carbon-fibre-coated aluminium claw was thrust into the flesh from pig and crocodile carcasses.

Skin impact

Instead of producing the expected slashing wounds, the robotic impacts created only small, rounded punctures.

Dromaeosaurs were fast and agile carnivores

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The punctures had a depth of about 30-40mm.

"It seems highly unlikely that wounds of this depth would have posed a danger to the vital organs of a large herbivorous dinosaur, though they would obviously be fatal to small prey," the team writes in Biology Letters.

Dr Manning does not want people to think less of Velociraptor or Deinonychus because of the research.

Its killing efficiency may not have matched their Hollywood image but the creatures would still have presented a terrifying prospect.

Deadly pack

"It's effectively like a fatal embrace," he told the BBC News website.

"These claws were used to hook into the flanks of prey larger than them so the jaws could do the despatching.

A Kevlar and carbon-fibre coating gave the claw realistic properties

"Unbeknown to them, you've got a pack of predators stalking them.

"First, [the dromaeosaurs] try to separate the animal they wish to kill by running into the pack.

"The lead attacker then jumps on to the flanks of the animal, followed by maybe two or three others, hooking the huge claws in their feet into the animal and holding on with the re-curved claws on their hands.

"And once they're hooked into their prey, the razor sharp teeth of their jaws go to work causing as much blood loss as possible to weaken the animal.

"Eventually, the other animals come over for the kill, probably ripping open the throat and stomach with their teeth - not their claws."

The results of research were first shown on The Truth about Killer Dinosaurs, a BBC television production.