Re: Australian dinosaur stampede "ornithopod" scenario challenged

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

On Wed, Nov 23rd, 2011 at 4:56 AM, Ben Creisler <bscreisler@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Richard A. Thulborn (2011) 
> Lark Quarry revisited: a critique of methods used to identify a large 
> dinosaurian track-maker in
> the Winton Formation (Albianâ??Cenomanian), western Queensland, Australia.
> Cretaceous Research (advance online publication)
> doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2011.11.006 
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667111001844
> 
> Abstract
> A remarkable assemblage of dinosaur tracks in the Winton Formation 
> (Albianâ??Cenomanian) at 
Lark
> Quarry, a site in western Queensland, Australia, has long been regarded as 
> evidence of a
> dinosaurian stampede. However, one recently published study has claimed that 
> existing
> interpretation of Lark Quarry is incorrect because the largest track-maker at 
> the site was
> misidentified and could not have played a pivotal role in precipitating a 
> stampede. That recent
> study has claimed that the largest track-maker was actually an ornithopod 
> (bipedal plant-eating
> dinosaur) similar or identical to Muttaburrasaurus and not, as originally 
> supposed, a theropod
> (predaceous dinosaur) resembling Allosaurus. Those iconoclastic claims are 
> examined here and 
are
> shown to be groundless: they are based partly on misconceptions and partly on 
> fabricated data
> which has been assessed uncritically using quantitative measures of 
> questionable significance.
> Such ill-founded claims do not
>  reveal any substantial flaw in the existing interpretation of the Lark 
> Quarry dinosaur tracks.

Those last two sentences are extraordinarily worded, and would seem to border 
on libel. They give 
the impression of an emotional response, rather than a scientific one. I'm 
surprised that specific 
wording made it through peer-review.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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