NAME

Meaning - Saltopus means “hopping foot”
Pronounced - SAL-to-pus
Named By - Friedrick von Huene
When Named - 1910
DIET

Carnivore (meat-eater) - it may have eaten mostly insects
SIZE

Length - 2 ft (0.7 m) long
Height - 8 inches (20 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - 2 pounds (1 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Triassic period, about 225-222 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in Scotland, Europe.
FOSSILS

Only a very incomplete, poorly-preserved fossil (including part of the skull) of Saltopus has been found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Genus Saltopus
  • Species elginensis (type species named by von Huene, 1910) - Saltopus is a nomen dubium (not enough is known about it to be sure that it is a separate species or if it is even a dinosaur at all)
INTERESTING FACTS

Saltopus may have been a very early dinosaur. It was small, lightly-built dinosaur that walked on two legs. It had light, hollow bones, and a long head with dozens of small, sharp teeth. Saltopus has five fingers on its hands, but the fourth and fifth digits were very small.
LINKS

A detailed page on Saltopus.
Print out a K-3 level Saltopus info page to color.