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Acrocanthosaurus (hand claw)
Age:
Cretaceous
Note: Called
Acro for short, this dinosaur is a Therapod (a two-legged
meat-eater) which had 68 long, knife-like teeth in its 5 foot
long head. At 40 feet long, this dinosaur ruled the land about
35 million years before there were any T. rex's. Unlike T. rex,
this dinosaur had larger, more powerful arms that could grab,
hold and crush other dinosaurs. It could probably lift a small
car off the ground! There is one very interesting feature about
the Acro, and that is the high spines along its back and neck.
In fact the name Acrocanthosaurus means 'high spined lizard' in
Greek. The spines are not nearly as big as those on some
dinosaurs that have 'sails' on their back, like Spinosaurus.
Instead, Acro's spines, the longest of which is about 2 feet,
were anchors to which huge muscles were attached. This made Acro
very strong and powerful. And Acros probably needed to be very
strong because there is evidence that it hunted huge sauropod
dinosaurs. Some modern animals have a similar type of spine
along their back to give them strength: horses, elephants and
buffaloes all have this type of muscle suspension. Acro had
relatively small feet for a large dinosaur. This was because it
lived in a drier climate and did not need a large surface area
to keep it from sinking in mud. Although similar in size and
weight to T. rex, its feet were only about half the size. T. rex
lived in a much wetter environment and probably spent a lot of
time walking through marshy ground. The teeth of an Acro were
typical of the large meat-eaters of the late Jurassic and Early
Cretaceous. They were long and fairly thin, curving slightly
inward with serrations along the front and back edges. This
means that Acro did not necessarily use its teeth as a killing
tool. Teeth like this were most likely used to rip big pieces of
flesh from prey which it was holding with its powerful arms and
feet. Unlike T. rex, Acro teeth could not have been used to
crunch bone as they would break too easily. When its teeth did
break, Acro had new teeth waiting. Like many dinosaurs, it was
constantly shedding old teeth and replacing them with new.
Allosaurus Fragilis(foot claw)
Age: Jurassic
Discovered: Utah U.S.
Note:
One of the
most popular and well known dinosaurs, Allosaurus was the most
ferocious meat-eater of the Jurassic. It was the first of the
really big meat-eaters which had huge heads filled with lots of
sharp teeth. It could run very fast, close to 40 mph, and had
very strong arms and long, sharp, curved claws on its hands. One
of its hand claws was more than one foot long! Allosaurus lived
among some of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the earth and
it is likely that it hunted some of smaller members of these
families. Even the smaller members would have been huge, and
this required Allosaurus to have great strength. Allosaurus is
the namesake of the very successful allosaurid family of
dinosaurs. This family includes what may be the very largest
carnivore, the Giganotosaurus, and other creatures such as the
Acrocanthosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus. Its more distant
relatives are the raptors and tyrannosaurs of the late
Cretaceous. Allosaurus had relatively small teeth for such a
large dinosaur, especially when compared to later big
carnivores. It probably had a weak bite compared to its size,
but its mouth could open very wide. Allosaurus most likely used
its very heavily muscled arms with its huge claws as potent
weapons in bringing down and holding its prey. It also was close
to having true stereo vision - its big eyes had some forward
vision that would have allowed for a degree of depth perception.
There is a great deal known about this dinosaur's life style.
Footprint evidence indicates it hunted in groups and that it
cared for its young in large nests. It inhabited floodplains,
meadows and some forests.
Size: 11 1/2in/ 28cm
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-claw-allosaurus-fragilis-cl39-va
Ammosaurus (claw)
Discovered: Antlers formation, Texas
Note: A
medium-sized member of the prosauropod family, this primitive
plant-eater was characterized by a small head, long neck and
large body. Discovered in a quarry in Connecticut in the late
1800's, only the back half of the specimen was rescued by
Othniel Charles Marsh; the front half having already been sawed
into blocks to build a bridge near South Manchester. In 1969,
more parts of the Ammosaurus were discovered when a nearby
sandstone bridge was demolished.
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-ammosaurus-claw-cl03-va
Baharisaurus (claw)
Note: Very
little is known about Bahariasaurus as only a small number of
hipbones have been found. Even those were lost, however, when
Allied bombs destroyed the German museum where the bones were
housed during WWII. Bahariasaurus was probably a large
meat-eater, almost as big as T. rex. It might have looked like
Carcharodontosaurus, which lived in the same area of North
Africa. A number of these bones were found by German
paleontologists shortly before WWI. In the early 1930's they
were named Bahariasaurus and identified as coming from a huge
carnivore. WWI ended the original search for the specimen and
WWII destroyed what had been found. Some scientists have
suggested that Bahariasaurus may have been part of the
Tyrannosauridae family.
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-baharisaurus-claw-cl05-va
Camarasaurus (claw)
Age: Jurassic
Discovered: Utah
Note: Camarasaurus was a
very heavily built member of the long-necked sauropod family of
Jurassic dinosaurs. It is very well known by scientists and
recently a family of these large creatures was discovered in the
Western U.S. Camarasaurus is also a part of one of
paleontology's big mistakes when its head was put on the body of
Apatasaurus and called Brontosaurus. Compared to some of the
other sauropods, Camarasaurus had a relatively short neck and
tail. It also had a large head compared to other sauropods, but
the head was almost hollow. The skull openings for the nose and
eyes were very large. This is the most common North American
sauropod found, with more than ten fairly complete skeletons
unearthed to date. At least four species have been identified
within this genus. Camarasaurus gets its name from the hollow
spaces in its neck vertebrae. These would have made the neck
lighter and easier for the dinosaur to lift and move about. This
dinosaur also had the largest teeth among sauropods.
Chilantaisuarus (claw)
Description: Known
from fragmentary remains found in Mongolia and China,
Chilantaisaurus seems to have resembled Allosaurus, but it may
have been related to the tyrannosaurids as well. Chilantaisaurus
had large arms for a big theropod.
Note:
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-chilantaisuarus-claw-cl06-va
Chirostenotes
Age: Cretaceous
Discovered: Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada
Description: Talk about a weird dinosaur!
This is it! Chirostenotes was an Oviraptorid - a toothless theropod. There has been very
little known or written about this dinosaur in any scientific or popular literature. Until
recently, had not been a good Chirostenotes skeleton known. The latest Cretaceous Oviraptors
grew quite large and probably competed with Struthiomimus and Nanotyrannus for their meals.
This Chirostenotes manus (hand) claw replica is one of
the finest from the genus.
Deininychus Raptor (claw)
Age: Cretaceous
Discovered: Montana
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-deininychus-claw-sh16-va
Note:
Deinonychus
was a fast and vicious hunter. Its name means "terrible claw,"
and it was given this name because of the large, retractable
hunting claw on each of its feet. Like its cousin, the
Velociraptor, it used this claw to tear into the flesh of the
dinosaurs it hunted. The claw would snap forward and make a
large, deep wound when it attacked. Deinonychus was about twice
as big as Velociraptor. Deinonychus is probably the best known
of the dromeasaurids, with nine specimens having been discovered
since the genus was established in 1962 by John Ostrum. An
interesting feature about this dinosaur is that its teeth are
more backward pointing than other, larger theropods, suggesting
that they are designed for feeding and not for the killing of
prey. This points to the effectiveness of its hand and foot
claws as weapons. Its skeletal design, according to Ostrum,
clearly points to a very active predatory lifestyle - a hunter
with both speed and agility. Its hands were very large and had a
great range of movement and flexibility. As the dinosaur grew,
long tendons along its tail hardened into a bone-like material
to stiffen it and make it a useful mechanism for maintaining
balance and direction in quick turns. A few scientists have
argued that Deinonychus is a North American species of
Velociraptor and does not merit its own genus. Recent research
and discoveries by scientists such as Dr. Philip Currie are
showing that some dinosaurs similar to Deinonychus most likely
had feather-like coverings on all or part of their bodies. These
proto-feathers were most likely used for insulation, display, or
both, and may eventually have evolved into flight feathers. To
date, these have not been found on Deinonychus.
Dimetrodon (claw)
Age: Cretaceous
Discovered: Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada
Cost: $75 (+ shipping)
Notes:
Dimetrodon is commonly mistaken for a dinosaur, but it was in
fact NOT a dinosaur at all. It was one of a number of animals
known as Mammal-Like Reptiles that dominated the late Permian
period. It was a large meat-eater that lived primarily in swampy
areas and had a very interesting feature - a large sail on its
back. Dimetrodon disappeared at the beginning of the Triassic
Period. Unlike other pelycosaurs that did not have fins,
Dimetrodon was able it to warm up in the morning and cool off
more efficiently during the heat of the day due to its sail.
This method of controlling its body temperature, along with its
large and powerful jaws, gave this predator a distinct advantage
over the other large carnivores, making it the dominant land
predator. In fact, its ability to warm up faster would have
enabled it to catch and eat the slower, non-finned Mammal-Like
Reptiles. Dimetrodon is easily distinguished from dinosaurs as
its legs were positioned on the side of its body while dinosaurs
had their legs under their bodies. Even with this body
structure, it was probably a very fast runner. It had a large
head with very strong jaws and two types of teeth -sharp
fang-like teeth for ripping and tearing in the front and smaller
cheek teeth in the back that were designed for shredding the
meat.
Item#: reptile-dimetrodon-claw-replica-cl10-va
Dromaeosaurus (killer claw)
Age: Upper Cretaceous
Discovered: Drumheller Alberta Canada
Note:
Dromaeosaurus was the original raptor. It was a small, vicious
hunter that had a mouth full of serrated, razor-sharp teeth and
a sharp, hooked claw on each foot that it used to clamp down on
its victims. When first discovered, Dromaeosaurus was hard to
classify. It had such large foot bones that it was thought to be
a much larger dinosaur. It had a large brain for its size, large
eyes and grasping hands. Because of this, scientists thought
that it was more than twice its actual size. It wasn't until
almost 50 years after the discovery of the type specimen that it
was formally classified into its own family. All the other
raptor dinosaurs, such as Deinonychus and Velociraptor, are
members of the dromaeosaur family.
Cost: $75
(+ shipping)
Item#: dino-dromaeosaurus-claw-cl41-va
