Activity 5 - A Skeletal Plan

They stopped and stared.  Only the edge of one hip bone and claw were exposed at the surface.  The team immediately recognized the characteristic shape of these bones- they belonged to a predatory dinosaur.  Everyone was wondering how much of the animal lay beneath the surface.

With each passing day, the team found more bones.  Unlike those of the sauropod, the bones of the theropod were scattered around the site and were located within inches of the surface.  The team soon realized they had found bones from all parts of the skeleton included the skull.  It was the most important find of the field season - a new theropod!

Theropods are bipedal (two-legged), carnivorous (meat-eating) dinosaurs.  Their short, strong front limbs are adapted for grasping and tearing flesh.  Their three-toed limbs are built for running.  The long tail is used for balance and the narrow skull has rows of long curved teeth for holding onto live prey.

The team named the new theropod from Niger Afrovenator, meaning “African hunter.”  Afrovenator has a particularly long skull (more than 2 feet long) and a lightly-built skeleton about 30 feet long.  The long hind limbs indicate that Afrovenator was a particularly fast predator.  Sauropod bones were found close to the Afrovenator site, and it is very likely that Afrovenator preyed upon the large plant-eating sauropods.

A Skeletal Plan

Background

Did you know that you can match almost all the bones in your skeleton with those in a dinosaur skeleton?

Humans and dinosaurs belong to a large group of animals called vertebrates, all of which have bones that follow a similar skeletal plan.  The vertebrate skeletal plan evolved long ago (about 350 million years ago) in the ancestors of the vertebrates and was inherited by all of their descendants.

Vertebrate Skeletal Plan