Two reasons: the knowledge is still rather new, and feathers are more difficult to render.
Apart from that, while we know that some of them had feathers, nobody knows how they looked like or which colors they had.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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Actually (IIRC) Spielberg knew that the velociraptor had plumage and were shorter. He shoes to go with the design we know now because it wasn’t believable for him
I'm not sure believability had much to do with it, as opposed to the flair for the dramatic. At the end of the day, Dr. John Ostrum, the paleontologist that both Crichton and Spielberg consulted for their projects had this to say:
Q: Is Steven Spielberg's version of dinosaur's accurate? A: I think he's a really talented man who can put these creatures on the screen so they look real. Steven Spielberg created this image based on a story written by another extremely clever person, Michael Crichton.
[...]
The name I gave it was Deinonychus, which comes from the Greek and means 'terrible claw'. And Michael Crichton, in an apologetic way, explained that in the novel he decided to use the name Velociraptors, that I had said was the closest relative to the animal I had found. He said, 'It's more dramatic.' And I said I recognize that most people are not familiar with Greek. Velociraptor everyone recognizes.
Then again, if you mean "believable" in the sense that Spielberg didn't believe accurately sized velociraptors would be scary (as opposed to 'i literally don't believe these creatures existed'), then I'm just making your point again, but worse.
archive link to the rest of Dr. Ostrum's interview, if anyone is curious.
I think the reasoning at the time was lizards with feathers would not sell and thus were not « believable » but your explanation is better
Jurassic World: Dominion has feathered dinosaurs. Including several in the prologue and a badass therizinosaurus.
Michael Keaton did play Birdman.