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II.—The Principal Characters of American Jurassic Dinosaurs belonging to the Order Theropoda1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

O. C. Marsh
Affiliation:
Yale College, Newhaven, Ct., U.S.A.

Extract

The carnivorous Dinosauria form a well-marked order, which the writer has called the Theropoda, in his classification of this group. Although much has been written about these reptiles since Buckland described Megalosaurus in 1824, but little has really been made out in regard to the structure of the skull, and many portions of the skeleton still remain to be determined.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1884

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References

page 252 note 1 From the American Journal of Science, vol. xxvii. April, 1884.

page 252 note 2 Silliman's Journal, vol. xxiii. p. 81, January, 1882. See also vol. xxi. p. 423, May, J881; p. 339, April, 1881; and vol. xvii. p. 89, January, 1879.

page 254 note 1 The “ horn” of Iguanodon described by Mantell, and since regarded as a carpel spine, proves to be the distal phalange of the thumb.

page 260 note 1 Compsognathus is cited as an instance of this union, but in a careful study of the original specimen in Munich, the writer found evidence that the astragalus is distinct, although closely attached to the tibia. Baur has since proved this conclusively (Morpholog. Jahrbuch, viii.). In the Stegosaurida alone, among known Dinosaurs, is the astragalus coössified with the tibia. This, however, is not a character of much importance.

page 260 note 2 The presence of various genera of Dinosaurs closely allied to these American forms in essentially one horizon in the Isle of Wight, suggests that the beds in which they occur are not Wealden, as generally supposed, but Jurassic.