Posted on 10/18/2005 7:19:16 AM PDT by Junior
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Researchers have found tracks of a previously unknown, two-legged swimming dinosaur with birdlike characteristics in northern Wyoming and are looking for bones and other remains in order further identify and name it.
"It was about the size of an ostrich, and it was a meat-eater," said Debra Mickelson, a University of Colorado graduate student in geological sciences. "The tracks suggest it waded along the shoreline and swam offshore, perhaps to feed on fish or carrion."
The tracks indicate a dinosaur that was about 6 feet tall and lived about 165 million years ago along an ancient inland sea, Mickelson said in a university news release.
"The swimming dinosaur had four limbs and it walked on its hind legs, which each had three toes," she said. "The tracks show how it became more buoyant as it waded into deeper water — the full footprints gradually become half-footprints and then only claw marks."
Mickelson said research so far by herself and others supports the "conclusion that the dinosaurs were intentionally swimming out to sea, perhaps to feed."
Mickelson was presenting her findings at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting this week in Salt Lake City and was unavailable for comment.
The finding would be significant because so far no one has been able to prove that aquatic dinosaurs existed, Joanna Wright, assistant professor of geology at the University of Colorado-Denver, said Monday. There were swimming reptiles that are now extinct, Wright said.
Wright said she has not reviewed what Mickelson and other researchers involved have found, but she would be interested in seeing photos of the tracks.
The news has perked up the ears of some prominent paleontologists.
"I'm not a trackway specialist, but it sounds pretty cool to me," Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and one of the nation's leading fossil hunters, said by telephone from Bozeman, Mont.
Horner said he was unaware of any previously discovered dinosaur tracks "where it actually goes from land into the water."
The unique tracks were found at a number of sites in northern Wyoming, including the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area along the Wyoming-Montana state line.
The tracks are embedded in a layer of rock known as the Middle Jurassic Bajocian Gypsum Spring Formation. Geologists believe an inland sea covered Wyoming and a large area of the western United States during the Jurassic period from about 157 million to 165 million years ago.
Mickelson said the unidentified dinosaur tracks are found among tracks left by many animals, including ancient crocodiles and marine worms, and are of different sizes.
The tracks suggest that the dinosaur traveled in packs and exhibited some variation in overall size, she said.
Mickelson collaborated her findings with researchers from CU-Boulder, Indiana University, Dartmouth College, Tennessee Technological University and the University of Massachusetts.
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That the footprints are 165 million years old.
This footprints went from land into water.
This dinosaur was 6 feet tall.
This dinosaur ate meat.
This dinosaur is an ancester of birds.
This dinosaur was born on a Tuesday.
I'm not just guessing here. This is all testable and verifiable. I may be mad, but I am a scientist.
And the dinosaur died when 3 comets hit the earth at one time.... right after the polar ice cap melted.
Ow. A kick in the testables.
Tested by radiometric dating.
This footprints went from land into water.
Evidenced by the wave patterns fossilized in the same matrix as the footprints.
This dinosaur was 6 feet tall.
Deduced from the stride distance of the prints themselves.
This dinosaur ate meat.
Three-toed dinosaurs discovered to date have been carnivores.
This dinosaur is an ancester of birds.
Nope. The article said it had "bird-like characteristics." However, from previous experience with you on these threads it is apparent your reading comprehension skills leave much to be desired.
This dinosaur was born on a Tuesday.
There is only about a 14 percent chance you are right. Of course, you did just pull this out of your ass, which is about right for you. I'm not just guessing here. This is all testable and verifiable. I may be mad, but I am a scientist.
Well, actually, in the case of the last two points you were guessing. That you neither know nor care to know how science actually works speaks poorly of you. That you parade your willful ignorance in public compounds the perception.
GGG ping?
Anyone who has ever watched a Western where the bounty hunter/Indian guide draws conclusions from a set of tracks wouldn't necessarily be all that amazed. Throw in modern techniques, and you can really make some good dterminations.
I'm confused. Do you not understand how scientists could have come to these conclusions (a few books could rememedy your own inadequacy in this matter) or do you understand the methods involved but disagree with how they were applied in this case? Or are you just pissing in the wind?
That you seem confused how they could know it eats meat of all things is telling.
I've got some land that I'd be glad to sell you... it's right on the ocean..... In fact... you can study 165 million year old foot prints right there.
I like it when scientists defend their conclusions by saying "I saw it in a John Wayne western one time."
Which scientist said that?
Anyone who has ever watched a Western where the bounty hunter/Indian guide draws conclusions from a set of tracks wouldn't necessarily be all that amazed.
I think that's ludicrous. I made up a quote about John Wayne westerns. Ya gonna shoot me? I said it as a joke. He said it seriously. Ya oughta shoot him.
You kind of remind me of the couch potato who thinks he knows better than the coach how to play the team.
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