Saltopus

Saltopus Temporal range: Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Holotype elements
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauromorpha
Clade:	Dinosauriformes
Clade:	Dracohors
Genus:	†Saltopus von Huene, 1910
Species:	†S. elginensis
Binomial name
†Saltopus elginensis von Huene, 1910

Saltopus ("hopping foot") is a genus of very small bipedal

Saltopus elginensis is known only from a single partial skeleton lacking the skull, but including parts of the vertebral column, the forelimbs, the pelvis and the hindlimbs. These have been mainly preserved as impressions or natural casts in the sandstone; very little bone material is present.[1] It was about the size of a domestic cat, and would have been roughly 80–100 centimetres (31–39 in) long.^[2] It had hollow bones like those of birds and other dinosaurs. It may have weighed around 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). In 2016, it was estimated to be 50 cm long, 15 cm high at the hips, and 110 g.^[3] Most of the length was accounted for by the tail. It had five-fingered hands, with the fourth and fifth finger reduced in size. Contrary to the original description, in 2011 it was established that the sacrum (hip vertebrae) was made up of two vertebrae, the primitive ancestral condition, not four.^[2]

History

The only known fossil of Saltopus was discovered in 1867 by William Taylor in the Lossiemouth West & East Quarries. It was initially named as a specimen of Telerpeton elginense (now Leptopleuron lacertinum) by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1867,^[4] and it was later named and described by Friedrich von Huene in 1910 as the type species Saltopus elginensis.^[1]

The generic name is derived from Latin saltare, "to jump" and Greek πούς, pous, "foot". The specific name refers to its provenance near Elgin, which yields the Elgin Reptiles. The holotype NHMUK R.3915, was excavated from the Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation dating from the Carnian-Norian stage.^[1]

Classification

Saltopus has been variously identified as a

A large phylogenetic analysis of early dinosaurs and dinosauromorphs by Matthew Baron, David B. Norman and Paul Barrett (2017) recovered Saltopus near the base of the dinosaur lineage, suggesting that it may represent the closest relative of true dinosaurs.^[8]

References