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Note on Two Dinosaurian Foot-Bones from the Wealden

1892; Geological Society of London; Volume: 48; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1144/gsl.jgs.1892.048.01-04.23

2058-105X

Richard Lydekker,

Evolution and Paleontology Studies

Bones of the feet of the Sauropodous Dinosaurs of the Wealden are of such rare occurrence that all specimens seem worth record, even in cases where we are unable to determine definitely the species to which they pertain. The specimens of these bones in the British Museum hitherto recorded comprise one huge claw-phalange, together with another associated bone of the foot (No. R. 986) provisionally referred to Hoplosaurus armatus ; and several associated metatarsals and phalangeals (Nos. 36559, e , and R. 206) assigned to Morosaurus brevis . In addition to these, Prof. Seeley has described and figured the metapodium (?metatarsus) of a Sauropod from the Cambridge Greensand under the name of Acanthopholis platypus , showing the whole five bones in their natural position. The genus Acanthopholis , it need scarcely be observed, belongs to the Stegosaurian section of the Ornithopodous Dinosaurs, and the Sauropodous nature of the so-called A. platypus was subsequently admitted by its describer, who suggested that it might prove identical with his Macrurosaurus semnus , of which the specific name ranks later. Quite recently Dr. Baur has observed that the type of A. platypus is indistinguishable from the metatarsus of Morosaurus , of the American Jurassic, to which genus it may perhaps belong. The two specimens forming the subject of this communication are represented in the figure on the following page; they comprise a perfect metapodial (? metacarpal) bone and an associated phalangeal. Both were obtained by Mr. C. Dawson from the Bone-bed of the Wadhurst Clay, near Hastings and they were extracted