S20 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[vol. 45 



Sydenham, which represented this dinosaur as a sort of elephantine 

 reptile walking on all fours. That Trachodon and his kindred 

 walked erect and carried their tails clear of the ground is indi- 

 cated by their structure, while much light is thrown on the sub- 

 ject by tracks made by various dinosaurs. At Hastings, England, 

 is a series of thirty great bird-like tracks, ascribed to Igttanodon, and 

 showing no imprint of fore-feet nor any furrow such as would have 

 been made by the dragging of a heavy tail. 

 Just such furrows, associated with the prints 

 of four feet, are present in some of the 

 famous specimens from Connecticut valley, 

 while they are absent when the impressions 

 are three-toed, like those at Hastings. 



The front foot of TracJiodon had four toes, 

 the innermost being movable, somewhat like 

 a thumb, so that the foot could be used for 

 grasping. The forefoot, however, was by 

 no means so long and slender as might be 

 inferred from a glance at the skeleton, since 

 the longer bones were surrounded by flesh, 

 the effect being that of a hand with an ex- 

 ceedingly long palm and short, stubby fingers. 

 The forefoot of the related Igitaiiodon had 

 a thumb like a short, stout spike, standing 

 out at right angles to the other digits (figure 43) and probably 

 serving some useful purpose in gathering or handling food. When 

 this spike was first found it was separated from the other bones of 

 the hand, and was supposed to belong on the nose, after the fashion 

 of the horn of the rhinoceros. 



Fig. 43. — Fore-foot of 

 Iguanodon. 



What may be called the companion to the skeleton in the U. S. 

 National Museum, that mentioned near the beginning of this article, 

 is on exhibition in the museum of Yale University, and was the first 

 complete skeleton of a dinosaur to be mounted in the United States. 

 The Yale specimen is slightly the larger of the two, measuring a 

 trifle over 29 feet in total length, but had suffered more from the 

 weather and so needed more restoration. The skeleton in the U. S. 

 National Museum is 26 ft. 4 in. long; 11 ft. 6 in. high from the 

 base to the top of the head, and 8 ft. 2 in. to the top of the hips ; the 

 skull is 3 ft. 5 in. long, the thigh bone 3 ft. 4 in., while the track 

 would have been about 21 inches in length and breadth. 



