Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 12:26:04 GMT
Fossilized track marks from a stampede of dinosaurs in Australia actually may have come from swimming animals, new research suggests.
The finding, published in the January issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, upends the traditional interpretation of the world's only dinosaur stampede.
Instead of a group of small dinosaurs trying to escape a massive carnivore, the fossils may reveal an ancient dinosaur "superhighway" or river crossing, said study co-author Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Dinosaur tracks
Some 3,000 to 4,000 fossilized dinosaur footprints were formed about 95 million years ago in a sandy riverbank in what was once a lush, coniferous forest. The site, known as Lark Quarry, is only about the size of a basketball court, and has become an enclosed and air-conditioned museum — a major tourist attraction in Australia.
The tracks came from several types of dinosaurs, ranging in size from a chicken to an emu with one oddball: a giant dinosaur that left its 23.6-inch-long (60 centimeters) footprints there.
In 1984, scientists Tony Thulborn and Mary Wade interpreted the tracks as evidence of a stampede of smaller dinosaurs escaping the clutches of a 4-ton theropod, a bipedal carnivore. [ Paleo Art: Stunning Illustrations of Dinosaurs ]
But in recent work, Romilio and his colleagues studied the large track marks and concluded the primeval creature was actually a large plant-eating dinosaur called Muttaburrasaurus. That suggested the "fleeing a predator" theory needed a rethink.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50508747/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UQJ3VHwgGSM
Whether the dinosaurs were stampeding or fleeing from predators it is still an amazing find.
Much love Suzy
The finding, published in the January issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, upends the traditional interpretation of the world's only dinosaur stampede.
Instead of a group of small dinosaurs trying to escape a massive carnivore, the fossils may reveal an ancient dinosaur "superhighway" or river crossing, said study co-author Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Dinosaur tracks
Some 3,000 to 4,000 fossilized dinosaur footprints were formed about 95 million years ago in a sandy riverbank in what was once a lush, coniferous forest. The site, known as Lark Quarry, is only about the size of a basketball court, and has become an enclosed and air-conditioned museum — a major tourist attraction in Australia.
The tracks came from several types of dinosaurs, ranging in size from a chicken to an emu with one oddball: a giant dinosaur that left its 23.6-inch-long (60 centimeters) footprints there.
In 1984, scientists Tony Thulborn and Mary Wade interpreted the tracks as evidence of a stampede of smaller dinosaurs escaping the clutches of a 4-ton theropod, a bipedal carnivore. [ Paleo Art: Stunning Illustrations of Dinosaurs ]
But in recent work, Romilio and his colleagues studied the large track marks and concluded the primeval creature was actually a large plant-eating dinosaur called Muttaburrasaurus. That suggested the "fleeing a predator" theory needed a rethink.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50508747/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UQJ3VHwgGSM
Whether the dinosaurs were stampeding or fleeing from predators it is still an amazing find.
Much love Suzy
