Re: speaking of hands

[Tom Holtz <tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov>]

>While we're talking about hands, what's the deal with the "mitten" hands
>of hadrosaurs? Were they in the process of turning into something
>hoof-like? Was this an adaptation for an increasingly quadrupedal
>lifestyle (if hadrosaurs were grazers, why be bipedal?)

Not "in the process of", but actually all the way.  Forget almost every
illustration you've seen of iguanodontian or hadrosaurid hands - they are
almost all wrong.  Digits 2, 3, and 4 in the hand were probably not
seperate outside of the flesh except for (maybe) the last phalanx of each.
The actually digits (fingers) of advanced iguanodontians (execpt for the
opposable digit 5) are VERY short, and most of the length of the hand was
the metacarpus.

Also, "grazers" (literally, "grass eaters") is an inappropriate term for
the Mesozoic, when grass hadn't appeared.  Hadrosaurs look like they were
good at both low (shrub, fern, etc.) and high (trees) browsing.

>
>On a different topic, I enjoy reading about all the museum displays and
>fossil sites to visit, but have noticed a lack of references to places on
>the east coast other than the AMNH. I live in DC and frequent the
>Smithsonian, but can anyone recommend other places of interest that I
>could hit on a (long) weekend? (BTW, last time I went to NYC I was
>unaware that the dino hall was closed for revamping and had to satisfy
>myself with the barosaurus/allosaurus display in the front entrance,
>when, exactly in 95 is it slated to reopen?)
>Blaise Considine [bpc.apa@email.apa.org]

Some of the historic East Coast collections with dinosaur displays include:

Philadelphia - The Academy of Natural Sciences

Pittsburgh (not really too East Coast, but...) - The Carnegie Museum of
Natural History

New Haven, CT - The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (Boola, boola!)

Cambridge, MA - The Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard

and others I'm sure I've forgotten..

                                
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.                                   
tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov
Vertebrate Paleontologist in Exile                  Phone:      703-648-5280
U.S. Geological Survey                                FAX:      703-648-5420
Branch of Paleontology & Stratigraphy
MS 970 National Center
Reston, VA  22092
U.S.A.