Re: Hypsilophodontid toes & tracks

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

Wouldn't you know it - I've had an (almost) four-toed small ornithopod
track quite literally under my nose the whole time. It is a cast of one
of the smaller Wintonopus tracks from Lark Quarry, about 4 cm long.
There's even a picture of it at that wonderful site I mentioned:

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/larkqury.htm

I noticed a slight impression on the lower right of the print, and on
consulting the cast I found a very faint impression of what looks like a
fourth toe. Unfortunately the scan I took of the cast doesn't do it
justice. I'm assuming the smallest of the three main toes is the inner
one, which would put this impression right where you'd expect the first
toe. The track seems to be of a running animal. It's mostly toes, and
gets deeper towards the "heel" end, as if the animal was really pushing
backwards hard.

Either the Wintonopus tracks represent mutliple species (which is a
pretty safe assumption anyway), or perhaps there were some pretty
friggin' large hypsies in Australia (I beleive it has been suggested
that Muttaburrasaurus may have evolved from hypsie-like animals).

-- 
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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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