Title: Cold-blooded vertebrates: part I. Fishes
Identifier: coldbloodedverte08hild (find matches)
Year: 1930 (1930s)
Authors: Hildebrand, Samuel F. (Samuel Frederick), 1883-1949; Gilmore, Charles Whitney, 1874-; Cochran, Doris M. (Doris Mable), 1898-1968
Subjects: Fishes; Amphibians; Reptiles
Publisher: (New York, Smithsonian institution series, inc. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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REPTILES are long and slender, while the hand consists of three digits of nearly equal length and a thumb, which is set off, as if for grasping. The digits are tipped with long, slightly re- curved claws, more useful for digging than for grasping an active prey. The elongated, slender hind legs show the
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Fig. 64. Struthiomtmus, the "ostrich mimic," feeding on crustaceans. Resto- ration in the .American Museum of Natural History animal to have been a runner of no mean attainment, depending upon a balanced mode of progression similar to that seen in the swift movements of certain modern lizards, in which the tail balances the forward part of the body. The unique structure o( Struthiomimus has led to a lively discussion as to its habits in life. All authorities have agreed in abandoning the hypothesis that it was carnivo- rous. One suggests that it was a wader, feeding upon small crustaceans and mollusks (Fig. 64); another believes it was an ant eater, preying on ant hills; and still another considers it herbivorous—a browser whose hands were peculiarly fitted for searching out or grasping some par- ticular kind of shrub or fruit; but none of these explana- tions are satisfactory. The Gigantic Sauropoda or Amphibious Dinosaurs The largest of the dinosaurs—the sauropods—probably (226)

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