Arctometatarsal
Sign in to savethumb|Tyrannosaurus foot showing the compressed arctometatarsalian condition of the middle [[metatarsal, compared to that of Allosaurus]] An arctometatarsalian organism is one in which the proximal part of the middle metatarsal is pinched between the surrounding metatarsals. The trait appears to be highly homoplastic, common in certain sorts of dinosaurs accustomed to running (among them the tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs, and troodontids), to evenly transmit force to the metatarsals.
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1 sectionsContents
- References
thumb|Tyrannosaurus foot showing the compressed arctometatarsalian condition of the middle [[metatarsal, compared to that of Allosaurus]] An arctometatarsalian organism is one in which the proximal part of the middle metatarsal is pinched between the surrounding metatarsals. The trait appears to be highly homoplastic, common in certain sorts of dinosaurs accustomed to running (among them the tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs, and troodontids), to evenly transmit force to the metatarsals.
==References==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Arctometatarsal” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.