Friday, November 30, 2007

Utah ATV riders aren't the only ones making tracks

You don't have to be a guy with a lab coat and a bubbling Bunsen burner have a Eureka! moment. Apparently, you don't even really have to be looking.

Today, the AP reported that several ATV riders discovered a sandstone dinosaur trackway in southern Utah - by riding over it.

According to the story, the site has an extraordinarily large concentration of footprints:

"The tracks were laid down across dozens of layers of rock, revealing a geologic record like the pages from a book. They include tracks of a sharp-toothed and clawed carnivore, a three-toed crocodile and a large plant-eating species."

Like the coprolites found at the Museum's site in Seymour, these footprints are another kind of trace fossil that helps scientists figure out prehistoric behavior.

The site is now closed to protect the trackway.