Re: Zimbabwe dino paper

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> There's something tragically poetic about that....

As the paper says (at the end = p. 469):

"Postcript: unique hazards in the survival of ichnotraces [!] in Africa

Recently (August 2003) one of the authors (AAA) revisited the site of the 
best preserved sauropod track (Fig 2). Unfortunately, the track and 
surrounding sandstone bed was severely damaged (Fig 4). The sandstone bed is 
both fractured and broken with some displacement close to the damaged track. 
All that remains of the track are three toes with the surrounding mound 
eroded. Trampling by a herd of elephants of the sandstone bed is reasonably 
proposed (TB) as the most likely cause of the destruction. The adjacent 
smoothly rubbed and rounded banks (Fig 4) are strong telltale signs of 
elephant behavior. Further support comes from the presence ofwater, in the 
normally seasonally dry river beds, suggesting that this was probably a 
drinking point at the time of the destruction. Water may also explain the 
severity of the damage to the sandstone bed since the bed sits on a 
semi-fluid base of mud and water, which is both plastic and pliable. The 
ephemeral nature of the mound surrounding the track (most vulnerable to e.g. 
physical trampling, natural erosion etc.) is highlighted and points to why 
it may be so rarely preserved around the world. The four less well preserved 
tracks close by (Fig 1), thought to be possibly of a single sauropod, were 
unharmed. The agent of destruction of the dinosaur fossil track described 
here must rank as unique in the annals of ichnology and is also ironic given 
that the track of the largest extinct land animal should be destroyed by the 
largest extant counterpart.
   We believe that these tracks, as well as the theropod tracks mentioned 
above (Lingham-Soliar et al. 2003), were first exposed after very heavy 
floods in northern Zimbabwe about ten years prior to our discovery. Hence 
their timely discovery in this volatile region and the present record are 
fortuitous. Unfortunately, the remoteness and wildness of the Chewore Area 
make protection of dinosaur tracks very difficult, certainly against for 
instance herds of elephants and changing river courses.)"