Illustration of a swimming dinosaur leaving deep, complete footprints in shallow water and incomplete footprints as it gradually loses contact with the sea floor. Illustration courtesy Debra Mickelson
Posted on 10/17/2005 7:25:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Tracks of a previously unknown swimming dinosaur have been found along the shores of an ancient sea in Wyoming, scientists announced today.
The tracks reveal an event 165 million years ago when a six-foot-tall, two-legged dinosaur waded into the inland sea and gradually lost touch with the ground.
"It was about the size of an ostrich, and it was a meat-eater," said Debra Mickelson, a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate student. "The tracks suggest it waded along the shoreline and swam offshore, perhaps to feed on fish or carrion."
Mickelson was scheduled to present her team's findings at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting this week Salt Lake City.
This is the first evidence for a swimming dinosaur in Wyoming, and also the first evidence for any dinosaur in the state during the middle Jurassic period, Mickelson said.
The search is on for bones, and no name has been issued yet.
"It is a dinosaur with bird-like characteristics and is a possible ancestor of birds," Mickelson said. "It lived in a much earlier time period and was very different from larger dinosaurs like T. rex or Allosaurus."
The tracks are embedded in ancient tidal flats of what's dubbed the Sundance Sea, which is thought to have covered Wyoming, Colorado and other parts of the western United States. It might have been warm and relatively shallow, much like the Gulf of Mexico is today, scientists say.
"The swimming dinosaur had four limbs and it walked on its hind legs, which each had three toes," Mickelson 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."
The tracks were found among traces of ancient crocodiles and marine worms.
Illustration of a swimming dinosaur leaving deep, complete footprints in shallow water and incomplete footprints as it gradually loses contact with the sea floor. Illustration courtesy Debra Mickelson
Hmmmmmm, Ted Kennedy has a lot of those traits. Must be an ancester.
My first thought... if it were swimming, how could it leave tracks? I wonder if they'll find the bones of a drowned dinosaur?
Hmmmnn, Fat Teddy alert.
My big beef with evolution: it is conjecture on top of conjecture on top of conjecture.
I'm surprised they haven't told us the color of its plumage.
swimming south to vegas
ping?
swimming south to vegas
LOL! But, really, Wyoming is a fascinating state. Probably crossed over from Utah
aooarently the dinos were doing swimmingly until they started smoking.
Looks like a velociraptor to me....
I think I found some of those in our bath tub!
How could it leave footprints that would be around long enough to turn into fossils? Everytime I see footprints in water, they get filled in and washed away pretty quickly. A little wave action takes care of them.
It looks like a veryfakeasaur to me...
Then again, its last thought may have been " Oh crap, this water's deep and I can't swim".
This is all the evidence you need, you can toss all those
icons and religious gobbledegook books, there is no god
you are descended from a swimming dino.Just put your "faith"
in the palentologists from the atheist university, you dont
even need to see any evidence they will just issue a press
release. You can store these articles on your hard drive and use them to convert others to your new "faith", if any
one gives you a hard time just derride them for being
unscientific, a babbling unschooled oaf. Use pretensious
vocabulary to inhibit their replies!
These are sci-en-tists, Sir. You may mock, but they have degrees...advanced degrees. Besides, the plumage came much later, after they had developed complex vocalizations, social integrations patterns and courtship rituals involving wine and roses.
... and after that they discovered thew famous Hitler Diaries!
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