Re: Dinosaur trackway questions

["Emma C. Rainforth" <emmar@ldeo.columbia.edu>]

Title: Re: Dinosaur trackway questions

Anomoepus

specimen 'crouching during rain' originally cited in R.T.Bird, 1985, Bones for Barnum Brown, p. 79.

No specimen # was given by Bird or Lockley. Offhand I am not sure which specimen this is supposed to refer to.

Richard W Travsky wrote:

> I found a pic of part of an Anomoepus
> track at
>  http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~polsen/nbcp/anomoepus.html
>
> Tail trace showing square scales (and
> what look like foot prints).
> Interesting, if this is the track in
> question.

no it;s not Bird's track. This tail impression was not noticed by anyone until 1998 and has not been published on yet (though there is a revision of Anomoepus, in press (Olsen, P. E. and E. C. Rainforth. in press. The Early Jurassic ornithischian dinosaurian ichnogenus Anomoepus. In LeTourneau, P. M. and P. E. Olsen (eds.), The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, vol. 2: Sedimentology and Paleontology. Columbia University Press). Oh and yes, those ARE footprints in the pic. Note, this slab does not have raindrop impressions.

Rich Mcrea wrote:

> The original description of this trackway
> as Anomoepus major is
> in Hitchcock, 1858.  If you want a
> bit of history on the trackway see
> Gierlinski (1996).  These prints have changed names a few times
> (Anomoepus -
> Sauropus - Grallator - Eubrontes) as well as interpretations of
> affinities
> (ornithischian - theropod).  It is
> an interesting slab in any case and
> Gierlinski (1996) reported finding feather impressions associated with
> these
> prints, two years before reports of
> feathered dinosaurs from China!

I just want to make it CLEAR that only Anomoepus major (Amherst College 1/7 and 1/1) is now considered to be Grallator; the othe Anomoepus species are still Anomoepus. It was named Anomoepus b/c at that time, only Anomoepus had the metatarsal impressions; but the actual foot structure indicates its grallatorid affinity (i.e. most likely a theropod track). (Anomoepus is attributed to ornithischians).

As to having feathers - other folk (Paul Olsen, Tony Martin, myself) who have studied these specimens consider the 'feathers' to be 'soft-sediment deformation' caused by the animal shifting it;s weight, and dragging the mud when it emplaced its feet.

Coombs' swimming theropods:

there's NO reason to think these are NOT undertracks (I've spent a considerable amount of time on my hands and knees on that very surface). (Sorry Rich - IMHO these are NOT 'convincing' swimming tracks)

For a complete analysis see: Farlow, J. O., and P. M. Galton. in press, Dinosaur trackways of Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, Connecticut. In LeTourneau, P. M. and P. E. Olsen (eds.), The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, vol. 2: Sedimentology and Paleontology. Columbia University Press).

(Okay, so you CAN"T see it yet as it's still in press......)