Dinosaur Tracks

This look at the field of ichnology is “an excellent compendium and a timely piece on a rapidly expanding and changing area of research” (Quarterly Review of Biology). The latest advances in dinosaur ichnology are showcased in this comprehensive and timely volume, in which leading researchers and research groups cover the most essential topics in the study of dinosaur tracks. Some assess and demonstrate state-of-the-art approaches and techniques, such as experimental ichnology, photogrammetry, biplanar X-rays, and a numerical scale for quantifying the quality of track preservation. The high diversity of these up-to-date studies underlines that dinosaur ichnological research is a vibrant field, that important discoveries are continuously made, and that new methods are being developed, applied, and refined. This indispensable volume unequivocally demonstrates that ichnology has an important contribution to make toward a better understanding of dinosaur paleobiology. Tracks and trackways are one of the best sources of evidence to understand and reconstruct the daily life of dinosaurs. They are windows on past lives, dynamic structures produced by living, breathing, moving animals now long extinct, and they are every bit as exciting and captivating as the skeletons of their makers. Includes photos and illustrations

Ten years ago a book about dinosaur tracks would have appealed to a handful of specialists. Today, it is likely to attract wider interest, in the wake of some major controversies about the natural history of dinosaurs. Few readers will be completely unaware of those spirited debates about 'cold~blooded' versus 'warm~blooded' dinosaurs, and eyebrows are no longer raised at the suggestion that dinosaurs may still be alive and kicking - in the guise of birds. Issues such as these have prompted many biologists and palaeontologists to take a serious second look at the everyday lives and habits of dinosaurs, and in doing so they have begun to turn their attention to the long~neglected study of fossil tracks - the direct testimony of dinosaur behaviour. This resurgence of interest in dinosaur tracks might legitimately be described as a renaissance, and its extent may be gauged from the success of the First International Symposium on Dinosaur Tracks and Traces, held in May 1986 at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque. The proceedings of that symposium, which attracted no fewer than 60 contributions from researchers in 14 coun~ tries, were published recently by Cambridge University Press under the title Dinosaur Tracks and Traces, edited by D.D. Gillette and M.G.

The long and distinguished tradition of tracking dinosaurs and other extinct animals in Europe dates back to the 1830s. Yet this venerable tradition of scientific activity cannot compare in magnitude and scope with the unprecedented spate of discovery and documentation of the last few years. Now, following on the heels of his Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of the Western United States, Martin Lockley teams up with Christian Meyer to present an up to date synthesis of the recent findings in the field of European fossil footprints. Drawing extensively on their own research results from studies in Britain, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere, the authors create a dynamic picture of mammal, reptile, bird, and amphibian "track-makers" throughout more than 300 million years of vertebrate evolution, placed in the context of Europe's changing ancient environments. Beginning with an introduction to tracking and a history of the European tracking tradition, Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe then charts a broad path of evolutionary proliferation from the proto-dinosaurs of the Early Triassic period to the dinosaurs' decline and disappearance in the Upper Cretaceous. The survey continues into the age of mammals and birds, ending with the cave art of our Paleolithic ancestors.

A rhythmic rhyme describes the different types of tracks made by dinosaurs that depict their movement and behavior.

Have you ever wanted to take the same steps as a dinosaur or see how your foot compares to that of a Tyrannosaurus rex? Amazingly, the tracks or footprints of dinosaurs that walked on the earth millions of years ago can still be seen today! Read and find out about the astonishing discoveries scientists have made just from the footprint of a dinosaur.

Dinosaur Tracks from Brazil is the first full-length study of dinosaurs in Brazil. Some 500 dinosaur trackways from the Cretaceous period still remain in the Rio do Peixe basins of Brazil, making it one of the largest trackways in the world. Veteran paleontologists Giuseppe Leonardi and Ismar de Souza Carvalho painstakingly document and analyze each track found at 37 individual sites and at approximately 96 stratigraphic levels. Richly illustrated and containing a wealth of data, Leonardi and de Souza Carvalho brilliantly reconstruct the taxonomic groups of the dinosaurs from the area and show how they moved across the alluvial fans, meandering rivers, and shallow lakes of ancient Gondwana. Dinosaur Tracks from Brazil is essential reading for paleontologists.

This is the first book ever to be devoted to this subject.

The Early Cretaceous (late Berriasian) Bückeberg Formation in the southern Lower Saxony Basin, to the west and to the south of Hannover, yields abundant and diverse dinosaur tracks, known since the late 1870s. After a few decades of pioneering and discovery, this area was scientifically neglected for a long time concerning dinosaur tracks and tracksites, and only single sporadic finds were reported in the second half of the 20th century. During 2007 and 2008, a new tracksite was discovered in Obernkirchen, yielding an astonishing amount of new and well-preserved dinosaur tracks, cared for by the Hannover State Museum and its cooperational partners. The present volume contains the abstracts of lectures and posters presented during the Dinosaur Track Symposium 2011 as well as excursion and collection guides. On behalf of the Schaumburger Landschaft, this symposium was held at the medieval Stift Obernkirchen, Germany, from April 14th to 17th, 2011. Nearly one hundred palaeontologists, biologists, geologists and other scientists from sixteen countries participated. Abstract Volume and Field Guide to Excursions from the International Symposium, Obernkirchen, April 14-17, 2011