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Re: CRETACEOUS AMPHIBIAN...HELP!


Ray,
If it is definitely an amphibian, I would think it would be either a frog or a salamander. If it is a salamander, _Batrachosauroides_ might be a good possibility, but I have no idea what their size range might have been.
The amphibian fossil record is so poor that I would think you might have better luck just comparing your tracks with those of modern families of amphibians to narrow down the possibilities.
Other than salamanders or frogs, the only other possibility I think of is that it was one of the last of the temnospondyls which apparently just barely survived into the Early Cretaceous (none in North America that I know of). So that doesn't seem very likely.
---Hope this helps a little,
Ken
******************************************* 
From: "Ray Stanford" <dinotracker@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: "Ray Stanford" <dinotracker@earthlink.net>
To: "Dinosaur Mailing List" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Subject: CRETACEOUS AMPHIBIAN...HELP!
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 11:45:26 -0400

If anyone out there who could provide me a link to one or more web sites
showing skeletal structure of the feet of Cretaceous amphibians it would be
extremely appreciated. I tried a google.com search but did not find what I
need.

This is dinosaur related, because I am trying to interpret a 52 mm long
amphibian track I found recently that is on a slab (used loosely) beside the
most wonderful sauropod manus track (260 mm across, including a bit of mud
splash) I have ever seen anywhere, that, in turn, has a great little (50 mm
long) right pes print of a narrow footed theropod beside it! This is the
first amphibian track I have ever noticed among the hundreds of Early
Cretaceous dinosaur, fifteen pterosaur, several croc, and a few possibly
mammal tracks found since August 1994.

    Any good link to Cretaceous amphibians (preferably showing bones of
feet) might help me interpret the seemingly- amphibian track, of which I
have no experience whatsoever.

Any help is appreciated, but please don't ask for a photo (jpeg) of this
item because I just gave my digital camera to my daughter (in Texas) to take
photos of my grand-daughter, my film camera needs to go in for repair (will
not click), and a 165-pound (reasonably accurate guess of weight) slab is
too large and too heavy for my scanner window. :(

Now I will let you wonder at how I got this amazing thing home and into
our living room track museum. ...And you think YOU have a tolerant and
understanding wife?! :)

    Ray Stanford

"You know my method.  It is founded upon the observance of trifles." --
Sherlock Holmes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery

>


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