The Reign of Iteptlles 



for striking or holding. Certainly they were 

 far too short and weak for walking, and indeed 

 the larger animals of the Theropoda must have 

 habitually walked erect. It may be that while 

 these creatures were flesh -eaters, they were 

 scavengers rather than active beasts of prey. 

 It is a little suggestive that although many 

 dinosaur bones have been found bearing the 

 marks of fractures due to accident, in only one 

 instance has there been any indication of tooth 

 marks. These were on the tail-bones of a large 

 herbivorous dinosaur,"^ and might well have 

 been made after death. 



The earliest known American dinosaur, An- 

 chisaurus,f from the Trias, was a carnivorous 

 species on a small scale, but one that must 

 often have walked on all-fours. It is rather 

 interesting as showing the progress of paleon- 

 tology that w^hen Anchisaurus was discovered, 

 in 1820, the possibility of these fossils being 



* Now preserved in the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York. 



f This is not his original name ; he was first called Mega- 

 dadylus, but this was found to have been already used, and so 

 Megadactylus was rechristened. 



167 



