Re: Triassic dino tracks in this week's Science

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

"Emma C. Rainforth" wrote:

> In this case the "tracks" that are the crux to the argument
> are in fact a track, singular, with no reliable documentation (to my
> knowledge) of the trackway pattern...

To quote Thulborn 1998:

More definite evidence of Triassic dinosaurs is a
sequence of *three* footprints reported from the
Ipswich Coal Measures by STAINES & WOODS (1964;
see also HILL, PLAYFORD & WOODS, 1965: pl. T13,
item 5; BARTHOLOMAI, 1966: 148, unnumbered fig;
MOLNAR, 1991: 659, fig. 37P). These footprints were
found as natural casts (convex hyporeliefs) in roof
shales of the Striped Bacon seam at Rhondda
colliery, roughly 2 km west of the Rylance colliery.
The best-preserved footprint was 46 cm long, and
the length of stride was about 2 m. STAINES &
WOODS (1964) referred these tracks to the ichnogenus
Eubrontes HITCHCOCK, 1845 - which, as mentioned
above, is invariably attributed to theropod
dinosaurs and sometimes regarded as a size-variant
of Grallator HITCHCOCK, 1858.

Thulborn, R.A. 1998 Australia's earliest theropods: footprint evidence
in the Ipswich coal measures (Upper Triassic) of Queensland. Gaia
15:301-311
http://www.mnhn.ul.pt/Gaia%2015%20papers/Gaia%20(15T-P301-311)-THULBORN.pdf

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Dann Pigdon                   Australian Dinosaurs:
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/
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