Re: dino tracks near Syracuse?

["Emma C. Rainforth" <emmar@ldeo.columbia.edu>]

Title: Re: dino tracks near Syracuse?

R. Schenk wrote:

> tridactyl tracks found in the Nyack area
> in Rockland county have been found.

Yes, in the Newark Supergroup. But Rockland co. (the northernmost outcrop of the Newark in NY) is NOWHERE NEAR Syracuse (good couple of hundred miles away). I think (but am not sure) the area Adrienne was talking about is Paleozoic.

(BTW Brunswick Gp was discarded 20 yrs ago; the Rockland co. tracks are in the Stockton Fm. of the Newark Supergroup (late Triassic).

> Interestingly, the paper I have
> here
> says that direct fossile evidence takes
> presedence over indirect evidence,

Uh. No. Evidently the State Paleontologist who wrote that paper had not heard of the ICZN. Trace fossil and body fossil names do not compete for priority. EVEN IF a critter is found dead at the end of the trackway and the trackmaker-identity is unambiguous. Ichnotaxa have their own taxonomy!

I have not seen the Syracuse-area tracks in question, but it is interesting to note that Dr. A. King, a physician in PA in the mid-19th century, published (in Am J Sci I think) on "bird" and "mammal" tracks from the Paleozoic of PA (1840's). Charles Lyell was visiting around that time and was curious about them, took a look, and observed that they were PETROGLYPHS!!!!!!  (Note: King's "Chirotherium-like' Triassic tracks are actual tracks, not petroglyphs). Perhaps the Syracuse tracks are also petroglyphs?