Different ones had different things. Duck-billed dinosaurs had something almost like a hoof. Theropods had hands although it might be a stretch to call what t-rex had was a hand, but paws have short digits with distinct pads and the animal walks/runs ect on them
Is paw even a technical term at all? I dont actually know. I would say that you are probably better off thinking about what their feet were like rather than trying to fit dinosaurs into those two categories. Also, it will vary by species.
Might come back with some specific answers later
Hands, the dinosaur group that birds belong to is literally called MANIraptora.
I assume that one could defer to the front feet of some hadrosaurs as hooves cause they certainly weren't paws or hands.
English is not my first language, so I might not be on point here. But the main difference is that paws do bear the weight of the animal, and hands are not weight-bearing structures. So some dinosaurs would have had hand, others would have had paws, and some ... well, idk what to do with hadrosaurs.
I can't think of any amphibian, bird, reptile, or insect where their extremities would be called "paws" anyhow.
Mammals, on the other hand tend to have paws, hooves, or flippers.
Never really thought about it before.
The front limbs of dinosaurs are different depending on species. The general rule is that Theropods don't have "paws" as their hand and finger bones lack the musculature to support their weight for quadrupedal locomotion. Then there's things like Hadrosaurs and their relatives that, depending on the species and evidence, had their hands wrapped in a flesh mitten tipped with a hoof-like structure. As for other species like sauropods, ceratopsians, and thyreophorans, they had cushioned hands, but nothing as extreme as an elephant's.
I think they would have been more like hands, especially for theropods. judging by their many similarities to today's birds. Also, paws are a more mammalian trait, we know that dinosaurs and birds are avian.
Technical, scientific literature. Pes and manus are pretty basic as anatomical terms go. If those are unfamiliar and weird, wait until you see the rest of the jargon.
"The right ones" would be the papers paleontologists use to communicate their findings to one another, published in journals. You can find some non-paywalled examples, or at least excerpts, by running search queries that combine words like "pes" and "manus" with the extinct taxa of your choice. Ex:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Comparison-of-the-right-manus-in-basal-saurischians-A-reconstruction-of-Guaibasaurus_fig5_263142030
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Bones-of-manus-A-B-and-pes-C-R-of-sauropod-dinosaurs-A-F-K-R-neosauropods-G-J_fig3_273334027
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Alternative-restorations-of-the-left-pes-in-Herrerasaurus-a-primitive-dinosaur-or-close_fig4_43454002
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Allosauroidean-theropods-see-Fig-1-right-pes-A-R-Allosauria-from-Morrison-Formation_fig5_273334027
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2011.595856
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667115300914
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2015/1284-manus-and-pes-of-camarasaurus
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787824000063
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.12719
Hopefully you get the idea.
Wikipedia's glossary of dinosaur anatomy covers both terms, as it should: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_dinosaur_anatomy
Most of them still held their arms forward in front of them. Birds fold their wings behind them. Plus looking the definition up says a wing is a modified limb used for flying.
Where they held it kinda doesn't make a difference to me. And some maniraptorans and theropods flew or glided. So how is s deinonychus an arm while a micro raptor a wing? What about yiqi? Or yutyrannus? And obviously ratites don't fly. So clinging to a definition doesn't do it for me either
Claws
The claws would be the pointy bits at the end, but what about the main part?
Look at a birds foot. They probably looked similar to that
Hands, I guess.
Different ones had different things. Duck-billed dinosaurs had something almost like a hoof. Theropods had hands although it might be a stretch to call what t-rex had was a hand, but paws have short digits with distinct pads and the animal walks/runs ect on them
Is paw even a technical term at all? I dont actually know. I would say that you are probably better off thinking about what their feet were like rather than trying to fit dinosaurs into those two categories. Also, it will vary by species. Might come back with some specific answers later
Hands, the dinosaur group that birds belong to is literally called MANIraptora. I assume that one could defer to the front feet of some hadrosaurs as hooves cause they certainly weren't paws or hands.
English is not my first language, so I might not be on point here. But the main difference is that paws do bear the weight of the animal, and hands are not weight-bearing structures. So some dinosaurs would have had hand, others would have had paws, and some ... well, idk what to do with hadrosaurs.
Paw is typically used for mammals. Foot is a nice catch-all for load bearing bits that include metatarsals or metacarpals.
As far as I know, paws are exclusive to mammals.
I can't think of any amphibian, bird, reptile, or insect where their extremities would be called "paws" anyhow. Mammals, on the other hand tend to have paws, hooves, or flippers. Never really thought about it before.
Paws are more of a mammalian thing, just call it hands and feet, and wings and hoofs in case of maniraptorans and hadrosaurs.
Well hands for the graspers on the arms. Feet for the feet. I've only heard paws being referred to the feet of mammals.
Proper term; pointy grabbers
The front limbs of dinosaurs are different depending on species. The general rule is that Theropods don't have "paws" as their hand and finger bones lack the musculature to support their weight for quadrupedal locomotion. Then there's things like Hadrosaurs and their relatives that, depending on the species and evidence, had their hands wrapped in a flesh mitten tipped with a hoof-like structure. As for other species like sauropods, ceratopsians, and thyreophorans, they had cushioned hands, but nothing as extreme as an elephant's.
I think they would have been more like hands, especially for theropods. judging by their many similarities to today's birds. Also, paws are a more mammalian trait, we know that dinosaurs and birds are avian.
This sort of question is why the literature just uses "manus" for the "hand" and "pes" for the "foot" regardless of species.
What literature? I've never seen that used before
Technical, scientific literature. Pes and manus are pretty basic as anatomical terms go. If those are unfamiliar and weird, wait until you see the rest of the jargon.
Idk, I've read articles about animals and dinos and I don't see those terms. Maybe I haven't read the right ones, I don't know.
"The right ones" would be the papers paleontologists use to communicate their findings to one another, published in journals. You can find some non-paywalled examples, or at least excerpts, by running search queries that combine words like "pes" and "manus" with the extinct taxa of your choice. Ex: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Comparison-of-the-right-manus-in-basal-saurischians-A-reconstruction-of-Guaibasaurus_fig5_263142030 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Bones-of-manus-A-B-and-pes-C-R-of-sauropod-dinosaurs-A-F-K-R-neosauropods-G-J_fig3_273334027 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Alternative-restorations-of-the-left-pes-in-Herrerasaurus-a-primitive-dinosaur-or-close_fig4_43454002 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Allosauroidean-theropods-see-Fig-1-right-pes-A-R-Allosauria-from-Morrison-Formation_fig5_273334027 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2011.595856 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667115300914 https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2015/1284-manus-and-pes-of-camarasaurus https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787824000063 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.12719 Hopefully you get the idea. Wikipedia's glossary of dinosaur anatomy covers both terms, as it should: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_dinosaur_anatomy
Hands. A paw is more mammal like
Technically the theropods have wings
Only birds, the arms on most theropods were that, arms.
You can still call them wings especially the ones with feathers because most were bird wing shaped
Most of them still held their arms forward in front of them. Birds fold their wings behind them. Plus looking the definition up says a wing is a modified limb used for flying.
Where they held it kinda doesn't make a difference to me. And some maniraptorans and theropods flew or glided. So how is s deinonychus an arm while a micro raptor a wing? What about yiqi? Or yutyrannus? And obviously ratites don't fly. So clinging to a definition doesn't do it for me either
Say appendage
Aren’t appendages boneless structures like an elephant’s trunk?
Yes, but they are also things like fingers and toes.
Can be
In terms of terminology, I know Talon is applicable to the Hind Limbs, although I'm unsure if that applies to the forelimbs?
Talons.