Tracks And Horizons

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

Human footprints provide some of the most emotive and tangible evidence of our ancestors. They provide evidence of stature, presence, behaviour and in the case of early hominin footprints, evidence with respect to the evolution of human gait and foot anatomy. While human footprint sites are rare in the geological record the number of sites around the World has increased in recent years, along with the analytical tools available for their study. The aim of this book is to provide a definitive review of these recent developments with specific reference to the increased availability of three-dimensional digital elevation models of human tracks at many key sites. The book is divided into eight chapters. Following an introduction the second chapter reviews modern field methods in human ichnology focusing on the development of new analytical tools. The third chapter then reviews the major footprint sites around the World including details on several unpublished examples. Chapters then follow on the role of geology in the formation and preservation of tracks, on the inferences that can be made from human tracks and the final chapter explores the application of this work to forensic science. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and students across a wide range of disciplines – sedimentology, archaeology, forensics and palaeoanthropology.

From 1964 to 1966, Carlos Caggiani travelled to 26 countries on a 1947 Indian Chief motorcycle with hardly a penny to his name. At 24 years of age, he embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. He spent time with everyone from poor natives in the Andes mountains, to rich families in the United States. He crossed rivers without bridges, suffered famine, intense heat and cold, guided his motorcycle through rain and snow storms, rode on dirt and cobblestone roads, was chased by the FBI, was shot at in Bolivia during a revolutionary war, and had a serious accident due to a mechanical failure in Panama that left him hospitalized for 17 days. The experiences in this book demonstrate a human being's tenacity and triumph in the face of adversity, and shows that anything is possible. There is always something more just beyond the horizon...and as the horizon expands, our limits disappear.

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