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SaltopusSaltopus elginensis was a very small bipedal reptile, roughly 23 inches (60 centimeters) long, discovered in Scotland. It was a late Triassic carnivore. Probably the size of a small cat, with hollow bones like those of a bird, it may have weighed in at around two pounds (one kilogram), and had five-fingered hands and a long head with dozens of sharp teeth. None of this can be known for certain, as Saltopus is known only from very poor material (mostly hind limb fragments). As small as it was, its carnivorous diet must have consisted primarily of scavenged carcasses or insects. It has been variously identified as a saurischian (lizard-hipped) dinosaur; a theropod (a fast-moving bipedal carnivore with clawed digits and hands on the forelimbs); and a close relative of the Herrerasaurus of the Herrerasauria infraorder, but its taxonomy is in dispute because only fragmentary remains have been recovered. It may also have been a lagosuchid (a primitive reptile from which the dinosaurs arose) or an ornithosuchian (closely related cousins of dinosaurs) instead of a true dinosaur. It has also been suggested that the supposed Saltopus remains may, in fact, be partial remains of some already-identified animal.
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