In Depth
Saltopus has had a murky taxonomic history with some researchers crediting it with being an early theropod dinosaur, while others insist that it was an advanced archosaur similar to Marasuchus. Currently most palaeontologists agree that Saltopus is most probably a dinosauriform, more advanced than an archosaur, but not quite a dinosaur. One argument to support this is that the sacrum (hip) only has two vertebrae. Some primitive dinosaurs such as herrasaurid theropods may have three sacral vertebrae, while most more advanced dinosaurs have between four and five sacral vertebrae, depending upon type, development, and possible specialisation.
Though only known from partial remains, we know that Saltopus would have been a very small bipedal animal with at least half of its total body length taken up by the tail. Saltopus still had five fingers, though the fourth and fifth fingers were already reduced in size. Given that most dinosauriformes of this type seem to have been meat eaters, it has been presumed that Saltopus would have also been a meat eater, though no stomach contents or skull and teeth fossils exist to confirm this. If Saltopus were a predator, it would have most probably hunted for small animals, such as lizards and larger invertebrates such as beetles and scorpions.
Further Reading
- Ein primitiver Dinosaurier aus der mittleren Trias von Elgin [A primitive dinosaur from the Middle Trias of Elgin]. - Geologie und Pal�ontologie Abhandlungen (n.s.) 8(6):317-322. - Friedrich von Huene - 1910. - Saltopus, a dinosauriform from the Upper Triassic of Scotland. - Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Volume 101, Special Issue 3-4, pp 285 - 299. - Michael J. Benton & Alick D. Walker - 2011.
