Re: Lack of Running Giant Theropod Tracks

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2010, Erik Boehm wrote:

> Aren't there some trackways of humans running in Australia, that 
> supposedly show ancient shoeless aboriginees, on uneven ground, could 
> almost match the speed of Usain Bolt running in the Olympics?

This is a press article you may be thinking of:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59D0BR20091014

Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 
200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
...
These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian 
anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled "Manthropology" and provocatively 
sub-titled "The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
...
His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago 
are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake 
bed, of six men chasing prey.

FLEET-FOOTED ABORIGINALS

An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he 
reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, 
reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 meters record of 
9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics.

In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was 
temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked 
shoes and rubberized tracks, aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds 
of 45 kph.
...