Dinosaur tail dragging

["Jerry D. Harris" <102354.2222@compuserve.com>]

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>On page 174 of his book "Tracking Dinosaurs", Martin Lockley suggests the
existence of more than one example of possible tail dragging in dinosaurs. 
He
says "tail drag traces are very rare" but that most of the reported cases
are
ambiguous or dubious.  In an end note, he adds that "There are examples of
short traces that were probably made by dinosaur tails; however, these
marks
are few and far between and were not made by prolonged dragging, but by
temporary touchdown of the tail."  He cites a 1985 publication by Gillette
and
Thomas on dinosaur tracks in the Dakota formation of New Mexico.
<

        In a talk with Don Burge (College of Eastern Utah) a couple of
years ago, he informed me that several of the now-closed sections of coal
mine in the vicinity of Price, UT (where most of the famous coal mine
prints have been found) show lengthy sections of trackway of probably
hadrosaur and ceratopsian origin with long tail drags.  However, for safety
reasons, no one is allowed into those sections of mine anymore -- they're
too unstable, so I doubt anyone is going to get to go study them any time
soon.  8-C


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Jerry D. Harris                         (505) 841-2865
Fossil Preparation Lab                
New Mexico Museum of Natural History        
1801 Mountain Rd NW                           
Albuquerque  NM  87104-1375             102354.2222@compuserve.com