Key Earth Science Links
Mesozoic Era—Dinosaur ichnofossils
Tracks
An Overview of Dinosaur Tracking. Glen G. Kuban. Good summary of the ways in which dinosaur tracks are formed, the major types of tracks (including a diagram that matches types of dinosaurs to types of tracks), and the types of information that can be obtained from studying tracks.
Dinosaur Footprints-Frequently Asked Questions. University of Texas at Austin. Answers to frequently asked questions about dinosaur footprints. Click on the illustrations of different dinosaurs with red X’s to discover different examples of scientific questions that fossil trackways have helped answer.
The Glen Rose Trackway. American Museum of Natural History. Short description and photograph of the Jurassic-age Glen Rose trackway, with a set of sauropod and theropod tracks.
Dinosaur Valley State Park, Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife. Two-page brochure of the famous Glen Rose track site with picture and reconstruction of a sauropod and theropod that made the trackway.
The St. George Dinosaur Tracksite. Kirkland, J., Utah Geological Survey, Survey notes. Three-page, online, non-technical manuscript (pdf) that summarizes dinosaur (including Dilophosaurus) and non-dinosaur (including Protosuchus) tracks from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation near St. George, Utah.
The Case for Fishing Dinosaurs…Milner, R., and Kirkland, J. Online pdf manuscript with general description of tracks and traces from the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Farm, Utah. Dinosaur tracks here show evidence of wading and swimming, and possibly fishing, in this ancient lakeshore deposit.
Dinosaur Footprints and Trackways from the Northeastern U.S. Digsfossils.com. This site includes a geologic time chart showing the known locations of Triassic and Jurassic dinosaur trackways in the northeastern United States. You can click on the names to see pictures of the tracks.
Dinosaur Tracks. ScienceViews.com. This site tells the story of a Jurassic dinosaur trackway discovery in Utah. Large theropod tracks are believed to be from Dilophosaurus . Many pictures, including images of partial tracks believed to represent swimming dinosaurs. Some images are in 3-D if you have 3-D glasses.
Coal Mines as Localities for Studying Dinosaur Trace Fossils. Lee R. Parker and John K. Balsley. Interesting, online technical reprint describing dinosaur footprints found in western U.S. coal mines.
Large Collection of Well-Preserved Theropod Dinosaur Swim Tracks…Milner and others, 2006, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 37. Online technical manuscript (pdf) that describes the tracks of theropod dinosaur in sandstone and mudstone deposited in a lake, which demonstrates that they were wading and swimming into the water. There is also a description of the traces of the invertebrates that lived in the lake.
The Edward Hitchcock Virtual Ichnological Cabinet. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. Virtual (technical) library with images and short descriptions of a wide array of fossil tracks in the collections of the Pratt Museum, Amherst College. There is a history of the collections, a catalogue, and online images of taxa.