Struthiomimus Dinosaur Toe Bone from South Dakota

Description: Presented is an excellent toe bone from this fast running theropod. It has a beautiful dark color, is solid and sturdy.

Struthiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous. It was a long-legged, ostrich-like dinosaur. The bipedal Struthiomimus stood about 4.3 metres (14 ft) long and 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) tall at the hips and weighed around 330 lbs. Struthiomimus is one of the more common small dinosaurs. Its abundance suggests that it was a herbivore or omnivore rather than a carnivore. As with other ornithomimids, it had a small slender head on a long neck (which made up about 40% of the length of the body in front of the hips). Its eyes were large and its jaws were toothless. Its feet were elongate, and the metatarsals were tightly appressed, with three toes tipped by claws with very slight curvature.

I recently purchased a large lot of dinosaur, reptile and mammal material from our primary collector. He lives in Montana and has over fifteen years of field collecting experience. Ten days were spent in obtaining this lot. The fossils were discovered in Cretaceous stream channel deposits. Some were surface collected as float, many were partially eroded out of the low-lying surrounding gullies and bad lands. The work of discovery continued upon his return home. There the specimens had to be cleaned and identified, a long and tedious process that lasted many days. Upon completion, all the specimens were photographed, notated and submitted to us at the Fossil Mall for consideration of purchase. Needless to say, we bought the whole batch.

A word regarding the legality of these fossils. Our provider only collects on private ranch and farmlands of Montana and S. Dakota. His relationships with these landowners have been cultivated over many years of door knocking and often difficult negotiations. Our collector, in the beginning stage of a possible collecting arrangement, cannot even contemplate a deal until he has walked the land holdings to discover if there are ancient remains to be found.