Comments on: What Dinosaurs Walked Here?

By: Dinosaur Tracking

Dinosaur Tracking — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:39:15 +0000

[...] on creative press releases, and provides a helpful round-up of informative articles (including a posting by our own Brian Switek) on the recent discovery of prehistoric tracks densely packed on a 3/4-acre [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:07:45 +0000

Thanks for the compliment, Hugh, although I think the “dancing dinosaur” imagery came from one of the authors of the paper! In one of the reports I saw (although I can’t remember where), Chan said that all the holes in the ground reminded her of Dance Dance Revolution pads, and she referred to it as a dinosaur dance floor. (I ran with it a little with the Was (Not Was) reference, but that was too good to resist).

What I found most interesting, though, was that the dinosaurs were probably walking over and between immense sand dunes in something akin to today’s Sahara, congregating at watering holes. It made me think of footage I’ve seen from Africa, particularly what happens when watering holes shrink and dry up. Imagining such a scene with dinosaurs is exciting, and the new tracks provide some clues about how they survived in a harsh environment.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:31:40 +0000

Is anybody else annoyed by the way most news outlets carried this story, as a “dinosaur dance party”? I mean, have we reached the point where dinosaurs are no longer interesting enough to warrant their own stories unless they are also dancing?? Many thanks to Brian for allowing this story to stand, or walk – but not dance – on its own merits!

By: Glendon Mellow

Glendon Mellow — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:37:44 +0000

Good point about tracks being fossilized behaviour, Sean. I hadn’t thought about them that way before.

Hmm.

By: Doug Gibson

Doug Gibson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:37:31 +0000

After reading about the Acambaro dinosaur figurines some years ago, I finally got a chance to go to Mexico to the Julsrud museum to see and handle parts of the collection firsthand. Throughout most of the twentieth century, dinosaurs were thought to be sluggish, dragging their tails. The Chupicuaro culture or an earlier culture accurately depicted dinosaurs in the newer revised manner, but the figurines have been dated to be about 3000 years old or more.
The earlier scientific depiction rested on the assumption that gravity and the size of the animals required a sluggish depiction. I’m surprised that current theory hasn’t pointed at the splitting of the continents as a cause for mass extinctions. They admit the occasional catastrophe, but not enough so as to cause them to utterly throw out uniformitarianism completely. USGS charts have proven there is no sea floor older than the Jurassic and that both the Pacific and Atlantic seafloors are the same age.

By: Sean Craven

Sean Craven — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:33:17 +0000

(A synchronicity — I haven’t thought of Was(Not Was) in years but just a couple of days ago I was walking to school and the demon DJ in my brain [I suffer badly from Dysphoric Melodic Mnemonic Syndrome -- my kill or cure prescription is the brutally catchy instrumental Popcorn] spat out, “Man versus man/man versus nature/man versus the Empire Brain Building.” I suppose it’s just a matter of time before I’m getting down with Fun Boy Three and the Burning Sensations.)

I’m legally obligated to mention that the cool thing about tracks is that they’re fossilized behavior — they’re the only solid evidence of behavior we have.

Speaking of behavior, you do know that it’s very cruel to mention a new type of track without giving us any details. How does it differ from other tracks? Any guesses as to what it may be? What types of dinosaurs don’t have tracks associated with them? Inquiring minds wish to know!

By: Glendon Mellow

Glendon Mellow — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:44:00 +0000

Why, oh why did you mention Was (Not Was)? I have not had that horrid song stuck in my head for like, 15 years now.

Where’s some industrial-techno…I have to purify…