Peter L Falkingham - Dinosaur Tracks: The Next Steps

Dinosaur Tracks

LIFE OF THE PAST James O. Farlow, editor

DINOSAUR TRACKS

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington & Indianapolis

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2016 by Indiana University Press

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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

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Manufactured in China

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Falkingham, Peter L., editor. | Marty, Daniel, 1973 editor. | Richter, Annette, editor.

Title: Dinosaur tracks : the next steps / edited by Peter L. Falkingham, Daniel Marty, and Annette Richter.

Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2016] | Series: Life of the past | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016011885 (print) | LCCN 2016015807 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253021021 (cloth) | ISBN 9780253021144 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Dinosaur tracks Congresses. | Footprints, Fossil Congresses.

Classification: LCC QE861.6.T72 D45 2016 (print) | LCC QE861.6.T72 (ebook) | DDC 567.9 dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011885

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Published with the generous support of:

THIS BOOK WAS DEVELOPED FROM A DINOSAUR TRACK symposium that was organized and held in April 2011 in Obernkirchen, Germany, on behalf of the Niederschsisches Landesmuseum Hannover (Lower Saxony State Museum Hannover). The enthusiasm generated during the short span of the symposium resulted in the idea for a new up-to-date dinosaur track book. Many of the symposium participants leading researchers in the field of dinosaur ichnology authored chapters in this book. We heartily acknowledge all of the authors for their excellent papers and patience throughout the process of bringing this wide-ranging book to publication, as well as the numerous reviewers that have contributed to the high quality of the peer-reviewed chapters. Thanks also to the Niederschsisches Ministerium fr Wissenschaft und Kultur (Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture), which has underwritten a substantial portion of the costs associated with the publication of this book, notably the color figures throughout the book. The Klosterkammer Hannover also deserves our gratidtude for financing extra color paintings, including the cover picture. Finally, our thanks go to Jim Farlow and Bob Sloan (both of Indiana University Press) for their outstanding support for the project from its earliest inception.

Dinosaur Tracks

0.1. (Top) Nocturnal view of the Early Cretaceous moderately to heavily dinoturbated Chicken Yard level at the Obernkirchen tracksite. (Bottom) Group photo of the congress attendants during the conference at the Renaissance Castle of Hlsede.

THE DINOSAURIA ARE ONE OF THE MOST MORPHOLOGIcally diverse groups of terrestrial vertebrates (Alexander, 1989), spanning several orders of magnitude in size from the smallest hummingbird to the largest sauropods. Ancestrally bipedal, groups within the Dinosauria evolved into a range of habitually and facultatively bipedal and quadrupedal animals. Their skeletons have been found on every continent (Weishampel, Dodson, and Osmlska, 2004), and their fossilized footprints are known from all except Antarctica.

The public perception of dinosaurs comes almost exclusively via their skeletons, and much of our knowledge about how these enigmatic animals looked and lived comes from osteological information. But the bones can only reveal so much, being as they are the product of a dead animal. Footprints and traces, on the other hand, are made by an animal during its life and can therefore shed light on paleobiological aspects that are not preserved in osteological remains aspects such as behavior, locomotion, or paleoecology.