RE: Running, bipedal? Re: Baby dinosaur tracks from Morrison

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Richard W. Travsky
>
> On Mon, 1 Nov 2010, bh480@scn.org wrote:
> 
> > From: Ben Creisler
> > bh480@scn.org
> >
> > In case this news story has not been mentioned yet:
> >
> > http://www.genengnews.com/industry-updates/morrison-
> > natural-history-museum-discovers-baby-sauropod-
> > tracks/98965127/
> >
> > Mentions tracks from baby apatosaurs with possible evidence 
> that baby 
> > sauropods sometimes ran on hindlimbs only.
> 
> Link not found. However, a similar (might even be the same) 
> article is here:
> 
> http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/10-63.htm
> Morrison Natural History Museum Discovers Baby Sauropod 
> Tracks Tracks of a Running Bipedal Baby Brontosaur?
> 

One VERY important issue (for which we will have to Wait For The Paper): are 
the pedal prints tracks, or are they undertracks? It
might well be that the little dino is running quadrupedally, but we are 
sampling layers under the actual muddy surface, which only
the pedal impression reached.

As has been shown by Manning (among many others), knowing if you are dealing 
with real tracks or undertracks can make a LOT of
difference in interpretation.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA