Re: furry footprints

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

On Wed, March 16, 2011 7:25 pm, Mike Nathal wrote:
> I was reading the Hitchcock paper from 1836 on dinosaur tracks,
> reproduced as a chapter in The Dinosaur Papers.  He describes one
> ichnospecies,  Ornithichnites ingens, which are 3-toed but are combined
> with what looks like fur/hair/feather imprints at the back of each
> print.   Has there been any modern interpretation of these tracks?
>

At least some of these are deformation of the sediment caused by the foot
"tugging" on the algal mat on the mud. I remember a talk by Tony Martin
showing similar "feathering" showing up on worm trails, mud cracks, etc.


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
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                        University of Maryland
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