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Dinosaurs through Time, pt 3
By Mace Baker
Like Iguanodon, this dinosaur was also named from a single tooth. Since the 1800’s, thisdinosaur has been thought to have been a lizard similar to Megalosaurus, Stegoceras, andHypsilophodon . New material found in Alberta in the 1980’s shows that Stenonychosaurus wasthe same animal as Troodon. It was a meat eater with hollow bones, scythe-like claws on thefeet, and grasping fingers on the hands. Its large eyes were spaced widely apart, but faced partly forwards. It had long slender hindlimbs with shorter forelimbs. Each foot had three toes, two of which bore large claws. The second of these claws was especially prominent and may have been held upward when this small dinosaur was moving rapidly. However, the sharper, hook-like claws on its three fingered hand was larger than that on its foot. It had a comparatively large brain (about 1.6 oz.) with very large eyes (about 1-3/4” in diameter). Its long, thin tail was without any stiffening tendons. Troodon had a long, narrow head with closely spaced teethwhich were saw edged and triangular in shape. Each side of the upper jaw contained as much as 25 teeth. Each side of the lower jaw contained 35 teeth. Hadrosaurus or “Sturdy Reptile” was named by J. Leidy in 1858.
The first dinosaur skeleton named in North America had a long, flattened jaw and snout, similar in appearance to a duck’s bill. The body, however, was very reptilian. Somewhat similar in shape to Iguanodon, Hadrosaurus had longer hind legs, shorter forearms, and a long tail. Thespine of the back was strengthened by a mass of reinforcing rods. Eventually, many other duckbill dinosaurs were uncovered in North America. They were given the family name of hadrosauridae.
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