In Hand Museum - Ants Inc.

Dinosaurs | Egypt | Mesopotamia |Human Ancestors

Sickle Claw : A diagnostic trait of the dromaeosaurs is this highly specialized claw on the second toe. It is unusually curved for a theropod.

Deinonychus used this large retractable claw to cut, slash and disembowel its intended victim. Its hands were well adapted to grasping and could have held creatures while the foot claws did their deadly work.

This figure demonstrates the range of motion of the "terrible claw" (second toe of the foot). The muscle attachments on the bottom of the ungual and on the bottom of the phalanx it attaches to are exceptionally large for a toe. This suggests that this toe could be moved with some force. The hook-like action would be very effective for slashing and disemboweling prey.

Flexion is the upper (dashed line) position, extension is the lower position. (illustration after Ostrom, 1969)

Barnum Brown : Barnum Brown was one of the greatest dinosaur paleontologists of the early part of the twentieth century. He found and described many new dinosaurs for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He led a colorful life. He once had to arrange a hasty fossil-collecting trip to India because his liason with a gangster's girlfriend came to light.

Counting dinosaurs: Paleontologists try to be conservative in assessing how many animals are represented by the bones in one quarry. They usually pick one distinctive bone and see how many individuals that suggests. For example, three left femora (thigh bones) suggests three dinosaurs. However, there may be parts of another skeleton that do not include a left femur (thigh bone) and so three is only the minimum number of individuals present.

Cloverly Formation : located in south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming it has produced all known specimens of Deinonychus.
The Cloverly Formation is up to about 100 m thick and is composed of conglomerates, sandstones and shales which formed in rivers and on semi-arid plains.