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.
But your dog is, in fact, a carnivore, right?
One can determine carnivore status by dentiture.
It's quite possible that you may be correct. The data is weighted toward the carnivore status, however.
50,000 years from now they could find human foot prints heading into the water.... but that doesnt' mean that they have gills.
ROTFLMAO .... That was a good one!
It's built on data points. As for being smarter than y'all, it is possible. For instance, I made the effort to learn about this stuff rather than remain ignorant (there's a long story behind that). That might be a good indication of intelligence.
This story is like the judicary. It's built on itself. It has no real merit except to say "we found some footprints.... and if what other people over the years have said is true... then it might mean.... yada yada yada". (Oh and please renew our endowment next year because we're hard on the trail of learning)
Might not be. It might be an indication of self esteme issues that manifested themselve in the need to acquire learning, even to the degree that the respondent readily accepts ideas passed around in "learned circles" for the sake of the self esteme.
That's not how science works. What those other people have said over the years has been tested time and time again, so confidence in it is high. None of this stuff is taken in a vacuum.
"You and I are not equal in the "not-scientists" department."
According to Junior, he is so much more of a "not-scientist" than you are.
That's about the best line I've ever heard in a p!ss!n contest. That settles it for me. He has beaten you.
Well, how would you explain that the tracks become less deep and in the end only claw marks. You seem to consider it dubious to infer that the animal was bouyed up by water. Are you saying we should consider the hypothesis that it was wearing anti-gravity generators?
I'm starting to think you're not for real... You're just playing with us. Even an uninformed person can list dozens of untested, unproven scientific theories that have been built on over the years.
The desire to learn is not an indication of some innate intelligence? The desire to remain ignorant is not an indication of a lack thereof? IQ-wise, I may be pretty average (I haven't been tested since grade school), but I cannot stand being unable to follow a conversation on any topic, even if I don't know enough about it to make a contribution. There have been threads on this forum that have sent me rushing off to the library because of this.
There are 1000's of possibilities. Science believes what it is suppose to believe based on it's years of ideas laid as a foundation.
Nice thread, but I'm kinda committed not to ping the list for "just another fossil" stuff. Besides, we've had so many threads pop up lately that I'll just pass. Nothing personal. The Grand Master sends his compliments.
I think you just re-enforced my post about self esteme.
No they can't. If it hasn't been tested, how can it be a theory? BTW, theories are never proven. Data accumulates as to whether one can have confidence in a theory or if it should be abandoned.
"One can determine carnivore status by dentiture."
You made up a word there (I give you points for creativity). But I still understood what you meant.
Name two.
What are you saying?? You don't think it's been proven that a spaceship can orbit the earth? You don't think that was once a theory???
Buddy....you're proving that you just stayed at Holiday Inn last night.
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