The Palaeoichnology Thread- Ancient footprints, trackways etc

Adam Khor

Or just something that had eerily similar feet? 
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170831134221.htm

Wibbs

It's certainly throwing the cat among the pigeons. Where hominids evolved has gone back and forth over time. Darwin was an early commenter on the matter when he considered Africa as the best bet because Africa had the most great apes still around. Then later on Asia was considered as more likely. Europe never really came into the equation.

Africa still looks like the best bet. However we must be wary of extrapolating certainties just going from what we have found. Africa has produced the most fossils and other evidence of early hominids, but it could well be because that's where we were looking as that's where we expected them to be. And the more finds where we were looking confirmed this. It also helps that sediments of the right age are more easily found and in greater areas in arid areas of Africa. Even then hominid fossils in the landscape are unimaginably rare. Imagine for a moment early hominids evolved in the vast lands of say Siberia. Vast lands where any such sediments are covered with many metres of soil ice and vegetation. What hope of finding anything in that. We see this in other areas of hominid research. Take later hominids in Europe. The science itself of hominid research started and continued for a long time just in Europe and Europe produced a helluva lot of the early finds and because of this it has a European bias to a large degree. Now e have an African "bias" with earliest hominids.

Look at the Flores "Hobbits". One angle is that they're dwarf Erectus, another is that they show features that are more primitive in nature than Erectus and have features that look more like Australopithecines(Lucy) which can't be explained by dwarfism. This would mean much earlier migrations than previously considered.

It would not surprise me to learn that some aspects of hominid evolution kicked off outside Africa and there was much more of a back and forth evolutionary geography going on(within Africa too of course). Asia and Europe at various times has had just as many environments and environmental pressures that would lead to selection and adaptation as Africa. And we know Erectus was ranging throughout in its timeframe and a long one it was.

Adam Khor

I think in this case what they find most strange is that the feet appear very modern despite their very ancient age. 
Wouldn´t it be crazy if there had been another creature with similar feet that had absolutely nothing to do with our particular linneage? A monkey, or even a non-primate? :B After all, bear footprints have been mistaken for the yeti before...

Adam Khor

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/megatheropod-dinosaur-footprints-lesotho-05363.html
"Kayentapus" tracks are usually believed to have been left by a dilophosaur or coelophysoid-type creature. This one may have been up to 9 meters long- comparable to late Cretaceous tyrannosaurids, although surely with a lighter body.

Adam Khor

The tracks were left by at least 8 different species, including dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals. The dinosaurs include theropods, a sauropod and apparently a nodosaur adult and a baby.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/02/01/incredible-dinosaur-road-discovery-mother-lode-dino-tracks-found-at-nasa-site.html

Adam Khor

The find includes tracks of elephants, rhinos, giant Cape horse, giant buffalo and golden mole.

https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5135

Equus capensis is believed to have been a zebra much larger than today's versions- up to 2 m tall and weighing up to 900 kg, whereas the giant buffalo Syncerus antiquus could weigh up to 2 tons, being a contender for the title of largest bovid of all times.

Adam Khor

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-fossil-footprints-discovered-cavendish-park-1.5027811

Adam Khor

The vast majority of known Mesozoic theropods were bipedal, with only a few having been suggested as potentially quadrupedal (Spinosaurus is one, but this is far from certain as the forelimbs to my knowledge have never been found). Other theropods for which a quadrupedal stance has been suggested, such as Xuanhanosaurus and Baryonyx, have turned out to have been bipedal.

Usually paleontologists argue that theropods could not walk on all fours because their hands didn´t have the necessary range of motion, but this new trackway from the Jurassic of China seems to suggest otherwise; here a theropod walks a short distance on all fours, apparently when on soft substrate and at a lower speed than would be achieved walking bipedally. So maybe they didn´t usually walk on all fours, but at least some of them could definitely do it if need be.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186%2Fs42501-019-0028-4.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1aslraSSgf941uDEvuSqjXl8kPl9TUqdScxLLR06HME0anXUYOwfniBGM

Adam Khor

The footprints were left by a very small theropod measuring perhaps as little as 28.4 cm long (a compsognathid, perhaps); the tracks are known by the name of Minisauripus. These are the first dinosaur footprints ever to preserve the entire scaling of the foot, and the first in which the skin is preserved in every footprint of the trackway.

https://gizmodo.com/intricate-skin-impressions-still-visible-on-exquisitel-1833912397?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_campaign=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR085iWrdGWeImAE6FAvBEzDdUlofR7_o_F0rytrzqh6O2O48JCbVdqon8A

Adam Khor

Amazing discovery!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12229504&fbclid=IwAR1xWEeZI2D0ikBRWcGhm5hzf1rvE9xc5C5K7lhSwIamp5ldyqAxyipTbn8

Adam Khor

https://amtsavisen.dk/oestjylland/Vidste-du-det-Sten-paa-Bispetorvet-indeholder-120-millioner-aar-gammelt-fodspor/artikel/442228

Adam Khor

"Tiger" tracks of Chinese folklore turn out to be dinosaur footprints.

The site of Maling Mountain in China's Jiangsu Province was known for four mysterious depressions on the rock which were associated with a legendary fight between a man-eating tiger and a human hero of enormous strength (so strong in fact that he could leave footprints in stone). The tracks are identified by this study as belonging to dinosaurs- probably a theropod, which would explain both the "tiger"'s claw marks and the elongated, human-like foot print (actually the dinosaur leaving an imprint of the heel, usually kept off the ground).

http://dzhtb.cgs.cn/gbcen/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?file_no=20190601&flag=1&year_id=2019&quarter_id=6

Yet another example of how fossils have influenced/supported Chinese folklore (another well known example would be the "dragon teeth" sold as medicine in traditional drug stores, which were actually the teeth of prehistoric mammals like Gigantopithecus).

Adam Khor

Who was Jurabrontes?

On the tracks of gigantic theropods from the late Jurassic of Switzerland and Morocco.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2017.1324438

http://www.sociedadgeologica.es/archivos/geogacetas/geo66/Geo66_21.pdf

the blunt digits and sheer size of the largest Jurabrontes tracks (notably trackways BSY1050-TR2, SCR1650-T1), some of which amongst the largest worldwide, suggest an allosaurid theropod of the size of Saurophaganax, an exceptionally large Allosaurus, or a large megalosaurid theropod such as Torvosaurus as a potential trackmaker.

Adam Khor

Large theropod footprint found in the isle of Wight- may be from a Neovenator or a Baryonyx.

https://www.wthr.com/article/fossil-hunters-discover-prehistoric-three-toed-track-after-windstorm

According to Wight Coast Fossils Facebook page, the track size is 50 cm (approximately 20 inches) long from toe to heel.