Troodon Foot Claw Replica

$10.00

Troodon had a specialized retractable claw on the second toe of its hind feet. This claw was likely used for grasping and capturing prey, and could be retracted when not in use, reducing the risk of damage to the claw.

Description

Troodon Foot Claw Replica measures 3 inches. Troodon Foot Claw Replica is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Made in USA. Our precise claw can be used as a teaching tool, museum claw exhibit, home décor claw, or office décor claw.

Troodon or Troodon formosus is a former wastebasket taxon and a potentially dubious genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs known definitively from the Campanian age of the Cretaceous period (about 77 mya). It includes at least one species, Troodon formosus, known from Montana. Discovered in October 1855, T. formosus was among the first dinosaurs found in North America, although it was thought to be a lizard until 1877.

Several well-known troodon or Troodon formosus specimens from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta were once believed to be members of this genus. Recent analyses in 2017 have found the genus to be undiagnostic and referred some of these specimens to the genus Stenonychosaurus (long believed to be synonymous with Troodon) and others to the genus Latenivenatrix.

The genus name is Greek for “wounding tooth”, referring to the teeth, which were different from those of most other theropods known at the time of their discovery. The teeth bear prominent, apically oriented serrations. These “wounding” serrations, however, are morphometrically more similar to those of herbivorous reptiles, and suggest a possibly omnivorous diet.

The first specimens assigned to Troodon or Troodon formosus that were not teeth were both found by Sternberg in the early 1930s, in the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. The first was named Stenonychosaurus inequalis by Sternberg in 1932, based on a foot, fragments of a hand, and some tail vertebrae. A remarkable feature of these remains was the enlarged claw on the second toe, which is now recognized as characteristic of early paravians.

Troodon had a specialized retractable claw on the second toe of its hind feet. This claw was likely used for grasping and capturing prey, and could be retracted when not in use, reducing the risk of damage to the claw.

The classification of Troodon as a pachycephalosaur was followed for many years, during which the family Pachycephalosauridae was known as Troodontidae. In 1945, Charles Mortram Sternberg rejected the possibility that Troodon or Troodon formosus was a pachycephalosaur due to its stronger similarity to the teeth of other carnivorous dinosaurs.

With Troodon now classified as a theropod, the family Troodontidae could no longer be used for the dome-headed dinosaurs, so Sternberg named a new family for them, Pachycephalosauridae.

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Additional information

Weight 1.5 lbs
Dimensions 3 in
Troodon Facts

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Troodontidae
Subfamily: †Troodontinae
Gilmore, 1924
Genus: †Troodon
Leidy, 1856
Type species: †Troodon formosus