Signs of feeding prehistoric birds found in Alaska

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1643382.htm

"Signs of feeding prehistoric birds found in Alaska"

Scientists have found fossilised depressions and footprints in Alaska's 
Denali National Park and Preserve in what is believed to be the first 
evidence of prehistoric wading birds probing for food, a geologist said on 
Friday. 

The tracks and the feeding marks found in rocks formed from freshwater 
sediments were 65 million to 70 million years old, said Phil Brease, a 
geologist at Denali National Park. 

Such evidence of prehistoric birds' feeding behaviour is difficult to find 
because the marks made in the mud disappear easily and the fossilised 
evidence often erodes, Mr Brease said. 

Geologists discovered the tracks and marks last summer, but confirmed the 
work over the winter after studying photographs and moulds. 

Denali National Park is an emerging hotbed of fossil findings. A team of 
geologists also discovered a fossilised footprint of a three-toed, meat-
eating dinosaur known as a theropod. 

-Reuters

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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://heretichides.soffiles.com
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
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