Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 117, September 2014, pp. 1-33. | Page 33

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continents and fed on a broad spectrum of diets (from feeding on leaves to
engaging a ferocious predatory behavior). Some of them became highly
socialized, laid eggs in bird-like nests ad protected their youngsters. Some others
achieved huge dimensions of the body-size (Tsrenov).
In the moshav settlement of Beit Zayit (Beit Zeit) near Jerusalem, footprints of
some dinosaurs were found, which belong to a group of agile animals, running
on their hind limbs, which their forelimbs were relatively very small, never used
for locomotion, but rather helped then to grasp food or prey. The late Prof.
Moshe Avnimelech from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem identified those
footprints as belonging to the genus Struthiomimus (=ostrich-like). Indeed, the
reconstruction of the animal (exhibited in the backyard of the department of
Geology in the Hebrew University) shows a close artificial similarity with
ostriches and their capability for a high-speed locomotion. Yet, contrary with all
other birds, its body was covered with horny scales, showed no teeth in its jaws,
which was covered with a horny sharp sheath and fed on leaves. The Beit Zeit
dinosaur was relatively small (150 kg, 4 meters long) (Tsrenov).
Related species of the same age were described from North America and
Mongolia. Until now, no dinosaur bones were found in Palestine, but the
footprints of Beit Zeit show that a band of this species ran about the shoreline of
the old Tethys Ocean which, at that time, covered the coasts of the Middle East
(Tsrenov).

Beit Zeit Dinosaurs. Israeli Stamps Booklet.
http://www.paleophilatelie.eu/images/variations/israel_2000_booklet.jpg
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 117 – September 2014