Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/151

Rh One extremely interesting specimen in the Amherst collection hears in all about fifty impressions, most of them made either by the same animal walking back and forth along the beach or by several of approximately the same size. In one of his journeys the creature slows down as shown by the fact that the tail begins to drag, whereas it had been

held out stiffly behind to counterbalance the weight of the body. Then the animal stops and comes down on all fours impressing the little hands and long heels, then, having satisfied its purpose, it rises again to its hind feet, touching one hand and the tail tip once more to the ground in regaining its balance, and then goes on its way. This single slab gives us thus a knowledge of the creature's size, proportions, gait, resting posture, feeding habits, for the little hand with its nail like claws could never have been used for grasping prey, and finally of the texture of the skin on the soles of the feet with creases between the joints, like those of the human fingers, and tiny granulations, like

mustard seed covering the entire surface. Footprints of this character are very common and indicate dinosaurs of rather light build, ranging in size from three and a half to seven feet.

One of the most remarkable of all of the footprints measures twenty inches in length, with four toes directed forward bearing broad rounded claws. The foot was bear-like, in that the entire sole and heel rested upon the ground and bore around its margin a broad web-like flange of skin, the probable function of which was to prevent the creature