THE THEROMORPII HAS A LITTLE SPECIALIZED LEG 



This animal, one of the extinct reptiles, represents a stage slightly above that of the newt- 

 type, the legs now being strong enough to support the body on land, but still not specialized 

 for rapid movement. The Theromorphs, of which the above is a model of a Naosaurus 

 from the Permian strata in Texas, by Charles R. Knight, are supposed by many to represent 

 the type of reptile from which the inainmals (man among them) took their rise. The human 

 stock took to the trees at an early date and thereby avoided having to develop legs for run- 

 ning on the ground. Other animals which developed such legs did not succeed in develop- 

 ing their brains to the extent that the tree-dwellers did. After Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 

 Fossil Vertebrates in the Am.erican Museum of Natural History, Volume iii, Plate IX, 

 1904-1908, page 265. Restoration by Charles R. Knight. (Fig. 2.) 



best developed member was the old 

 grasping digit — the first or big toe. It 

 seems that upon taking to a terrestrial 

 life he has started the elaboration of 

 this already specialized toe, and is 

 tending toward the development of a 

 foot which is quite unique — a foot in 

 which the first digit is the dominant, 

 and in the end, perhaps, the sole sur- 

 viving, member. 



DEGENERATION OF THE LITTLE TOE 



"It needs no special demonstration 

 to make plain the fact that the little 

 toe is somewhat of a rudiment in most 

 Europeans. Usually it is but a poor 

 thing; its nail is ill developed, and at 

 times no nail is present. It is par- 

 ticularly liable to that circulatory dis- 

 turbance which manifests itself in chil- 

 blains, and not uncommonly it seems in 

 a poor state of nutrition. Most people 

 possess but little power of movement in 

 it, and its skeleton show?; that its atro- 

 phic condition has affected the bones 



and the joints, for the last two phalanges 

 are ver}^ commonly fused together, mak- 

 ing it short of a joint as compared with 

 the other toes. Very commonly its 

 axis is not straight, and the toe is 

 humped up and also somewhat bent 

 laterally. 



"It is easy to assume that all this 

 is merely the result of wearing boots, 

 but it is perfectly certain that this 

 common explanation is not the correct 

 one. 



"In many races, the members of 

 which are quite innocent of wearing 

 boots at any time of their lives, the 

 little toe is just as atrophied as it is in 

 the average London hospital patient, 

 and in some unbooted native races it 

 is even more degenerated that is com- 

 mon in the booted Londoner. Among 

 the Malays, the absence of a nail upon 

 the remarkably stumped fifth toe is not 

 at all uncommon. The barefooted races 

 in Nubia are no better off in this matter, 

 and even in the very primitive Sakai the 



535 



