The Lark Quarry located near the city of Winton in Queensland (Australia) is the site of certainly one of the main number of dinosaur tracks discovered to date. When these tracks were first studied by Dr. Tony Thulborn and his colleague Mary Wade and their work published in 1984, the footprints caused a sensation as the many trackways were interpreted as herd of smaller Ornithopod dinosaurs in the business of some Coelurosaurs stampeding after they certainly were cornered with a lumbering giant Theropod dinosaur.

Important Trace Fossil Site in Australia

Ichnologists (scientists who study trace fossils, especially footprints), assigned the name Wintonopus to the small, Ornithopods, Skartopus to the bigger Coelurosaurs and the eleven prints believed to spell it out the large, predatory Theropod attempting the ambush were assigned to Tyrannosauropus. However, a fresh paper published in the academic publication “The Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology” interprets the tracks in an exceedingly different way. Lead author, Queensland palaeontologist Anthony Romilio presents evidence to suggest that these footprints aren’t proof a dinosaur ambush with a resulting stampede however the tracks produced by dinosaurs because they forded a river. Instead of “Walking with Dinosaurs”, this new research suggests a scenario of “Swimming as well as Wading with Dinosaurs”!

Cretaceous Dinosaur Trackways

The footprints are believed currently from around 95 million years ago approximately (Albian to Cenomanian faunal stages), the strata that the footprints were discovered in does represent fluvial deposits (river sediments), however, this new interpretation proposes that the tracks were produced by dinosaurs whilst in the water and not on the river bank. Walking along a river bed, especially one where in fact the water might have been no more than forty centimetres deep could have made sense if the banks were heavily vegetated, progress through dense scrub and forests would have been much slower if the dinosaurs had chosen a land route.

The Queensland palaeontologist stated that lots of the footprints and impressions produced by the dinosaurs were nothing more than scratches or elongated grooves preserved in the rock. These could be interpretated as marks produced by the dinosaurs because they punted or waded across the river bed. what dinosaur has 500 teeth A few of the more unusual tracks could represent “tippy-toe” traces, where a dog made deep, nearly vertical impressions in to the soft river bed with its clawed toes because they propelled themselves through your body of water.

In the paper, the scientist argues it is difficult to see how the tracks has been produced by a dog walking or running on land, even one panicked by an ambush from the predator. If the tracks have been made on land the impressions made would have been much flatter.

Not the First Exemplory case of a Swimming Dinosaur Found to Date

Fossilised footprints of a swimming dinosaur have now been found in the past. There is an essential single dinosaur trackway discovered in Spain that seems to exhibit a tri-dactyl, Theropod dinosaur touching the bottom of a lake occasionally as it swam across it. The sediments preserve the claw marks and impressions produced by the dinosaur at it touched the lake bed and pushed itself off again to continue its journey.

Very Important Scientific Site in Queensland

The Lark Quarry site represents certainly one of the main sets of dinosaur footprints proven to science. More than 3,000 individual prints have now been identified so far. Several the tracks, including the “dinosaur stampede/river crossing site” are on public display.

Modern Technology Used to Assess Ancient Trackways

Using three-dimensional footprint mapping techniques, the University of Queensland scientist has recently provided numerous new insights in to the dinosaur tracks of Lark Quarry. In 2010, Anthony Romilio published a scientific paper that suggested that the footprints assigned to the meat-eater Tyrannosauropus were actually produced by a big, herbivorous Ornithopod, a dinosaur similar to Muttaburrasaurus for example.

Commenting on the newly published research and reflecting on the sooner work suggesting that the large dinosaur tracks were not produced by a predator, Anthony stated that taken completely, the investigation suggested that the Lark Quarry sediments did not portray a dinosaur stampede.

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