Ditmars.
"The rear view of the standing skeleton displays the peculiarly avian
structure of the iliac junction with the sacral plate, characteristic
of these very highly specialized dinosaurs, also the marked reduction
of the upper end of the median metatarsal bone, which formerly was
believed to be peculiar to _Ornithomimus_."
This model of the group is on exhibition with the mounted skeleton.
As compared with its predecessor _Allosaurus_, the _Tyrannosaurus_ is
much more massively proportioned throughout. The skull is more solid,
the jaws much deeper and more powerful, the fore limb much smaller,
the tail shorter, the hind limb straighter and the foot bones more
compacted so that the animal was more strictly "digitigrade,"
approaching the ostriches more closely in this particular.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--SKELETON OF TYRANNOSAURUS IN COMPARISON
WITH HUMAN SKELETON.]
This animal probably reached the maximum of size and of development of
teeth and claws of which its type of animal mechanism was capable. Its
bulk precluded quickness and agility. It must have been designed to
attack and prey upon the ponderous and slow moving Horned and Armored
Dinosaurs with which its remains are found, and whose massive cuirass
and weapons of defense are well matched with its teeth and claws. The
momentum of its huge body involved a seemingly slow and lumbering
action, an inertia of its movements, difficult to start and difficult
to shift or to stop.
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