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Evidence of Swimming Dinosaur Found
AP - Science ^ | 2005-10-18 | BOB MOEN

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Wyoming; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: archaeology; crevolist; dinosaur; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; paleontology
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1 posted on 10/18/2005 7:19:19 AM PDT by Junior
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To: Junior

Evidence of Ted Kennedy?


2 posted on 10/18/2005 7:20:47 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
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To: Junior

3 posted on 10/18/2005 7:20:52 AM PDT by NRA1995 (When liberals speak I hear the Vonage music playing.....woo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo....)
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To: Junior
Evidence of Swimming Dinosaur Found

Ted Kennedy?

4 posted on 10/18/2005 7:20:57 AM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
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The CrevoSci Archive
Just one of the many services of Darwin Central
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CrevoSci threads for the past week:

  1. 2005-10-18 Evidence of Swimming Dinosaur Found
  2. 2005-10-18 Scientists Study Gorilla Who Uses Tools
  3. 2005-10-17 Cyborg cells sense humidity
  4. 2005-10-17 'Hobbit' tools found near remains
  5. 2005-10-17 Ichthyosaur bones found off U.K. coast
  6. 2005-10-17 Intelligent Design is not Science (Kenneth Miller Speaks at Lehigh)
  7. 2005-10-17 Jurassic Bark: Tree Thought Extinct Returned to the World
  8. 2005-10-17 New Planetoid Discovery Sets Off Feud
  9. 2005-10-17 Prof Speaks at 'Intelligent Design' Trial
  10. 2005-10-17 "Scientists Back Dover - [85 scientists request scientists, not Judges, to define ""science""]"
  11. 2005-10-17 Spitzer's Stunning Portrait of Andromeda
  12. 2005-10-17 Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
  13. 2005-10-17 University separates itself from professor in Dover intelligent design suit
  14. 2005-10-16 An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science
  15. 2005-10-16 Bad Frog Beer to 'intelligent design'
  16. 2005-10-16 Evolution debate unchanged over time
  17. 2005-10-16 Grown Man in the Stellar Crib: Now What? (Discoveries require rewriting the Astronomy books)
  18. 2005-10-16 Museums take up evolution challenge
  19. 2005-10-16 "Museums take up evolution challenge (because ""biology classes have faltered"")"
  20. 2005-10-16 Pa. professor [Behe] to testify in landmark case [Dover evolution trial, 16 Oct]
  21. 2005-10-16 The Separation of the Church of Darwin and State
  22. 2005-10-15 God and global warming
  23. 2005-10-15 Tracing the whale’s trail [Evolution trial, daily thread for 15 Oct]
  24. 2005-10-14 25 Questions to Ponder
  25. 2005-10-14 Ancient Anthropoid Origins Discovered In Africa
  26. 2005-10-14 Flea's giant leap for mankind
  27. 2005-10-14 Is Homosexuality proof against evolution?
  28. 2005-10-14 Science is the basis of public schooling
  29. 2005-10-14 Scientists hit back at Dover video [Evolution trial, daily thread for 14 Oct]
  30. 2005-10-14 Today's breaking news in the world of EVOLUTION
  31. 2005-10-13 Crisis In The Cosmos?
  32. 2005-10-13 Dark Matter: Invisible, Mysterious and Perhaps Nonexistent -
  33. 2005-10-13 Dover players prepare for Supreme Court [Penna evolution trial]
  34. 2005-10-13 Government Urged to Back Science Education
  35. 2005-10-13 "INTELLIGENT DESIGN POLL (Gallup, via NRO: ""God Had No Part - 12%"")"
  36. 2005-10-13 Mysterious 'half-animal, half-plant' marine microbe discovered by Japanese researchers
  37. 2005-10-13 New finds of human ancestor jumble evolutionary puzzle
  38. 2005-10-13 PJI Sues UC Berkeley for Using Federal Funding to Distort Religious Beliefs
  39. 2005-10-12 Camden tool could be 5,000 years old
  40. 2005-10-12 Can an Electron be in Two Places at the Same Time?
  41. 2005-10-12 Challenge to Biological Evolution: Convergence
  42. 2005-10-12 Dover science teacher testifies [Evolution trial, thread for 12 Oct]
  43. 2005-10-12 Give Me That Old Time Evolution: A Response to the New Republic
  44. 2005-10-12 Intelligent Design 101: Short on science, long on snake oil
  45. 2005-10-12 Intelligent Design Debate Brews
  46. 2005-10-12 Intelligent Design? [...in California schools]
  47. 2005-10-12 NASA Discovers Life's Building Blocks Are Common In Space

CrevoSci Warrior Freepdays for the month of October:
 

2005-10-12 Alice au Wonderland
2003-10-09 antiRepublicrat
2004-10-10 Antonello
1998-10-18 AZLiberty
1999-10-14 blam
2000-10-19 cogitator
2001-10-21 Coyoteman
2004-10-26 curiosity
1998-10-29 Dataman
2000-10-29 dila813
2005-10-07 Dinobot
2001-10-14 dread78645
2005-10-14 EasyBOven
1998-10-03 Elsie
1998-10-17 f.Christian
2002-10-08 FairOpinion
2001-10-26 Genesis defender
2000-10-09 Gil4
2000-10-08 guitarist
2004-10-10 joeclarke
1998-10-03 js1138
2001-10-24 k2blader
2001-10-22 kanawa
2000-10-08 LibWhacker
2002-10-25 m1-lightning
2001-10-10 Michael_Michaelangelo
2001-10-09 Mother Abigail
2004-10-25 MRMEAN
2004-10-03 Nicholas Conradin
1999-10-28 PatrickHenry
1998-10-01 Physicist
2003-10-19 Pipeline
1998-10-25 plain talk
1998-10-12 Restorer
2005-10-04 ret_medic
2001-10-23 RightWingNilla
2005-10-08 SmoothTalker
2004-10-09 snarks_when_bored
1998-10-04 Southack
2002-10-22 sumocide
2004-10-21 WildHorseCrash
2001-10-23 yankeedame
2002-10-20 Z in Oregon
1998-10-29 zebra 2

In Memoriam
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5 posted on 10/18/2005 7:22:10 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: Junior
I found footprints! Now I know:

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.

6 posted on 10/18/2005 7:23:42 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Junior

7 posted on 10/18/2005 7:24:31 AM PDT by maggief
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To: Junior
Amazing what can be determined from a set of tracks.
8 posted on 10/18/2005 7:25:23 AM PDT by dartuser (Drugs and alcohol are for those that cannot do mathematics.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

And the dinosaur died when 3 comets hit the earth at one time.... right after the polar ice cap melted.


9 posted on 10/18/2005 7:26:00 AM PDT by kjam22
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To: ClearCase_guy

Ow. A kick in the testables.


10 posted on 10/18/2005 7:26:02 AM PDT by SquirrelKing (I'm not mean, you're just a sissy.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
That the footprints are 165 million years old.

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.

11 posted on 10/18/2005 7:32:46 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG ping?


12 posted on 10/18/2005 7:33:14 AM PDT by BostonianRightist (I looted New Orleans and all I got was 40 of these lousy taglines.)
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To: dartuser

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.


13 posted on 10/18/2005 7:35:06 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: ClearCase_guy

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.


14 posted on 10/18/2005 7:38:12 AM PDT by Sols
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To: Junior

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.


15 posted on 10/18/2005 7:40:01 AM PDT by kjam22
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To: Junior
The last 150 years of science have obviously been a wrong turn. That's clearly so because you just can't keep the hayseed Nobellists sitting around the pot-bellied stove in ye olde General Store from getting confused. That they so relentlessly jeer, sneer, and slay strawmen guarantees that the right answer has been missed somewhere.
16 posted on 10/18/2005 7:42:15 AM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: Junior

I like it when scientists defend their conclusions by saying "I saw it in a John Wayne western one time."


17 posted on 10/18/2005 7:42:18 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: ClearCase_guy

Which scientist said that?


18 posted on 10/18/2005 7:43:45 AM PDT by Senator Bedfellow
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To: Senator Bedfellow
Junior said:

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.

19 posted on 10/18/2005 7:46:56 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: ClearCase_guy
I'm not a scientist, and you're trying to shift the focus. As I said, you don't know science, nor do you want to know it. Wallow in your self-inflicted ignorance.

You kind of remind me of the couch potato who thinks he knows better than the coach how to play the team.

20 posted on 10/18/2005 7:48:21 AM PDT by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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