Re: Big Dinosaur Prints Found

["Rob Gay" <rob_redwing@hotmail.com>]

Ray Stanford wrote:
> In fact, somewhere around here I have a 16mm movie from 1985, which I
took of two of my children walking among and sitting within some Triassic
(or were they Early Jurassic?) dinosaur tracks located somewhere generally 
west of the Hopi mesas in Arizona.  It may have been in the general vicinity 
of Tuba City.<
There are many trackways in the area of Tuba City, so this is probably a 
good bet to their location. Being the case, they were probably either in the 
Moenave or Kayenta Formations, which would place them in the Early Jurassic, 
though there may be some evidence there to say that the Tr-J interface may 
occur in the Kayenta.

> (possible of the ichnogenus Kayentapus, which some writers have said
may have been produced by Dilophosaurus)<
Until I see a paper matching size of the prints, and the joint positons in 
the foot, I'm sceptical of saying that any one animal made these tracks. 
There is a lot of fauna in the Kayenta that is poorly known, or unknown from 
body fossils at all. So, trying to assign a possible genus to a trackway is 
dubious at best, in my mind.

> I have wondered whether this was make by a dinosaur that was just having
a 'bad tail day', a dino with pathology in, maybe, the first, second, and/or 
third caudals, perhaps, or just by some libertarian or politically
incorrect, non-conformist theropod.  :-)<
Personally, I can buy the  pathology argument, since the occurance of these 
traces is fairly rare, and possible trackmakers (read coelophysoids) have a 
great degree of stiffness in the ventral plane of flexation, at least in the 
anterior portion of the tail. And, look at a human population. There are a 
number of people in any town with limps, or other things that would cause an 
abnormal trackway. While these people becoming fossilized is not very 
likely, one injured/diseased/crippled animal can make many tracks, and these 
may be preserved. That's my take on the matter, at least.
Peace,
Rob
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com