File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18156519012).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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From instantaneous pliotographs of the Australian water lizard (upper) and the frilled lizard (lower), showing the manner in which it is believed that the small primitive, two-legged dinosaur ran. The tail acts as a balancer to the fore part of the body consists of three digits of nearly equal length, the thumb being set off from the other fingers apparently for grasp- ing purposes while the second and third fingers are quite closely appressed side by side as in the hand of the two-fin- gered sloth. The terminal bones of the fingers were provided with long, par- tially recurved claws adapted for grasping the limbs of trees, as in the climbing sloths, but not adapted in any way either for digging in any hard sub- stance or for seizing an active prey. This unique combination of characters has led to a very lively discussion as to the life habits of Struthiomimus. All agree to abandon the idea that it was a carnivorous animal, but opinion varies between a purely herbivorous and a car- nivorous interpretation. First, as to the running motions of the animal, it is agreed that the "os- trich mimic"' is certainly the swiftest reptile which has ever been discovered. It nearly rivals the modern ostriches in its powers of speed. As the fore part of the body was balanced by a long, slender, and very rigid tail, in which the vertebrje are closely articulated, it is apparent that it depended upon the balanced mode of running, similar to that which is seen in the swift bipedal movements in several of the modern lizards, such as the Australian water lizard or the frilled lizard. The habit in lizards of running upon the hind legs with the body reared upward in front has been observed among repre- sentatives of three families—namely, the Old World Agamas, and the New World Iguanids, and Tegus or race runners. In each of these forms the

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