Friday, January 18, 2013

Stampede!!! Or so we thought... new evidence shows that dinosaurs may have been swimming



             DINOSAURS! Ever since I was a child, I have been obsessed. I loved learning and reading about them, I loved watching movies about them, and especially loved Jurassic Park. Though I preferred the idea of the non-carnivorous dinosaurs to the scary carnivores.  I also always felt sorry for the more goat that got eaten by the T-rex. AND.... Jurassic Park 4 is coming out in 2014 (supposedly).
            Some of my favorite childhood memories are the Dinofours books, the Mark Teague and Jane Yolen Dinosaur books, the Land Before Time movies, and I currently have a T-rex and a mini T-rex pillow pet!
            In Australia, there is an area called the Lark Quarry, which is home to the only recorded dinosaur stampede. There are more than 3300 fossilized footprints. A recent study done by researchers at the University of Queensland has provided evidence that the animals were not actually running away from a large predator  (the previous story), but instead were using the area as a water crossroads or type of "superhighway."


            They seem nearly certain that the dinosaurs were smaller, ranging in size from a chicken to an emu. By analyzing the tracks as they were, and then using a three-dimensional computer modeling software, the researchers came to the conclusion that the tracks were not actually from long-toed dinosaurs, but instead from short-toed dinosaurs that dug there toes into a river body. One of the scientists claimed that the dinosaurs were moving on the tippy-toes.


            These conclusions were published in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Full article - here
Other full article - here
Australian Geographic article - here  

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