/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/c9/94/c9947f05-f54c-4fc4-8ba7-549a2b7fcf76/01_ancient_footprints_manakacha-trackway-march-2018-46-adapt11901.jpg)
The 28 footprints capture an early reptile-like creature’s unusual diagonal gait (Courtesy of Stephen Rowland)
Posted on 10/29/2018 12:57:38 PM PDT by ETL
The 28 footprints capture an early reptile-like creature’s unusual diagonal gait (Courtesy of Stephen Rowland)
Some 310 million years ago, a reptile-like creature with an unusual gait roamed the sandy expanses of the Grand Canyon, leaving a trail of 28 footprints that can still be seen today. As Michael Greshko reports for National Geographic, these unusually well-preserved markers represent the national park’s oldest footfalls—and, if additional analysis links the early reptile to one that left a similar set of prints in Scotland roughly 299 million years ago, the tracks may even earn the distinction of being the oldest of their kind by more than 10 million years.
A paleontologist hiking the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail with a group of students happened upon the footprints in 2016. The animal’s path, which hardened into sandstone soon after its creator scurried off, had previously been hidden inside of a boulder. When the rock fell and split open, the winding trail was finally exposed, enabling the hikers to spot it as they explored the Arizona canyon.
The scientist reported the find to a fellow paleontologist, Stephen Rowland of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and in March of this year, Rowland and geologist Mario Caputo of San Diego State University arrived at the scene to investigate further. The pair announced their preliminary findings, soon to be followed up with a formal scientific study, at this month’s Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Annual Meeting.
According to Rowland and Caputo’s presentation abstract, the broken quartz boulder preserved the reptilian creature’s footprints as both impressions and natural casts measuring an overall width of about one meter across. Oddly enough, the tracks appear to represent a diagonal gait, as individual footfalls are angled 40 degrees out from the main pathway.
“Even if it was an ordinary trackway, it would be unusual,” Rowland tells Greshko. “But in this case, it’s doing a funny little side-walking step, line-dance kind of thing, which is weird.”
There are a number of potential explanations for the ancient animal’s strange gait. Perhaps a strong wind was blowing from the west, pushing the animal right as it attempted to push forward. Or maybe the creature purposefully angled its walk, hoping to steady itself on the slippery surface of a sand dune.
The creature may have been pushed to the right by strong winds
(Courtesy of Stephen Rowland)
It’s unclear what species the animal belonged to, but the scientists write that they “tentatively” assign the tracks to a “basal tetrapod of unknown taxonomic affinity” and the ichnogenus (category of trace fossil) Chelichnus, which is all basically a very science-y way to say we don’t quite know what this is, but we know it had four legs.
As researchers Patrick J. McKeever and Harmut Haubold explained in a 1996 article for the Journal of Paleontology, the Chelichnus classification was first used to describe a set of tracks found in Scotland’s Permian of Dumfries and Galloway during the early 19th century.
Unfortunately, McKeever and Haubold note, “Trackways that represent variations by the same trackmaker due to gait or substrate have been assigned different names. This practice has led to widespread confusion in the area of Permian vertebrate ichnology.”
Still, if Rowland and Caputo’s new identification proves accurate, the Grand Canyon footprints may well be the oldest left by members of the mysterious group.
“With a skeleton with bones and teeth, you get lots of good information, but you don’t actually see behavior,” Rowland says to Greshko.
Luckily, he concludes, “we’ve captured this animal walking.”
I think I sometimes walk like that when I first get out of bed in the morning.
On a serious note: I would encourage every FReeper to consider a trip to see the Grand Canyon, and do it while you are still young and fit enough to do some walking around.
They cover that precise topic in this excellent documentary.
How The Earth Was Made: Grand Canyon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLPbRKdvSw
I was a geology major back in the mid 80s.
How do you explain discontinuities/unconformities, subaerial erosion and palaeo karst features within the Grand Canyon sequence, if it was laid down rapidly and then eroded in the way you suggest?
Yeah but the next thing you know Bobby and Cindy get lost and you get locked in jail.
Leave Bobby and Cindy at home? Tie all the kids together with tethers? Give Bobby and Cindy their own GPS trackers?
There must be a solution that doesn’t involve JAIL!!!
"...310 million years old..."
or, the creature was drunk
It was laid down over a long time. It eroded quickly.
Electric Universe geology is discussed in detail offering insights into catastrophes that our ancestors experienced and is well-documented across many cultures from around the world. Plasma discharges and comet interaction created aurora like phenomenon described as seething rivers of fires causing metamorphic processes to create the necessary heat and pressure to create geologic formations that can be found in many places, especially the U.S Southwest. Flood deposit layering, dust and particle accumulation during electromagnetic events are also discussed along with lab experiments that can replicate these processes.
http://gunsandbutter.org/transcript-plasma-catastrophist-geology-michael-steinbacher
Robert Schoch has gone with Solar Coronal Mass Ejections as his explanation for things like the underground cities and Goblekli Tepe and such, across the Earth, but it makes me smile. :^)
310 million years?
Do they carbon date them?
299 million years for others?
Baffles me.
Lord, what a beautiful place.
“Scientists write that they “tentatively” assign the tracks to a “basal tetrapod of unknown taxonomic affinity” and the ichnogenus (category of trace fossil) Chelichnus”
Well, duh!
God says, “You’re welcome.”
</smile>
Yeah, that's foolishness. As the full extent of the site becomes known, that particular odd claim will be recognized as, well, odd.
TXnMA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3700978/posts?page=18#18
I probably should add a catastrophism ping...
Fossil Fred?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.