Re: [dinosaur] Size of australian sauropod trackmaker

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

On Wed, Apr 5th, 2017 at 7:18 PM, Poekilopleuron <dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> 
wrote:

> Good day,
> 
> I would like to ask if anyone tried to calculate more precisely the size and
> mass of the maker of largest australian sauropod footprints from Kimberly 
> region (about 175 cm long)? In the paper the silhouette of the dinosaur 
> seems to be too small for such a giant footprint. Is it possible that this
> animal was in the size range of Argentinosaurus? Thank you, Tom

The size of the tracks might not necessarily reflect the size of the feet that 
made them. The tracks
may have eroded slightly before being covered up, or the animal might have had 
feet encased in
a thick layer of mud as it walked. The sediments containing the tracks might 
even have been 
squashed by overlying sediments while still semi-fluid. Given that those 
sandstone deposits are now 
located in an active beach environment, and may have been uncovered and 
recovered by sand many 
times over long periods of time, modern erosion may also have been at work at 
the now solid stone. A 
little bit of all those factors combined could conceivably have expanded the 
tracks considerably.

Stride length between tracks might be a better indicator of the size of the 
animal that made them,
although you'd have to be confident of their limb proportions relative to their 
body size.


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 Dann Pigdon
 GIS Officer
 Melbourne, Australia
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