When Ken and Emanuel work together they ALWAYS find me the most unusual dinosaurs! The Saltopus is no exception. This early Triassic period dinosaur was the size of a cat. Its name actually means hopping or jumping foot as it was rather tiny and thought to be able to make great jumps. Without the finding of a full skull a lot has had to be determined from partial skeletons and like (but later) dinosaurs as is best explained by this cute video.

Our second video is more of a short animation. Basically showing how it is THOUGHT the dinosaur may have moved. With its short front legs and 5 fingers… though the 4th and 5th finger were very short… it was built much like a miniature (and much lighter) Tyrannosaurus Rex. Emanuel really enjoyed the video. You have to go to Vimeo to see this one HERE.

Found in Scotland of all places, this dinosaur is even considered to be a PRE dinosaur by some scholars. It had light hollow bones and lots of teeth. As a carnivore it is unknown if it ate animals or mainly insects but it probably also scavenged off carcasses to supplement its diet. And now for our links… KidsDigDinos has a great drawing of our dino HERE. ReptileEvolution.com has a great image of the skeleton with the parts that are actually found bones indicated HERE. Natural History Museum has a great carnivore in action shot of the Saltopus HERE. The Free Resource has a great question and answer style HERE. KidsDinos.com has the usual awesome map and charts HERE. EnchantedLearning has a great blurb on their site HERE. Dinosaurs.about.com has a great article with some links to things related HERE. Of course our Wiki factual article HERE. And of course our print out… HERE.

So our little dinosaur is quite the interesting character. I hope our videos and links come in handy!!! 

Saltopus