Geologists Discover Dinosaur Dancefloor In Remote Wilderness Of America!!!!!!!

by **J The Kidd** Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:50 pm

An amazing array of footprints made by more than 1,000 dinosaurs have been uncovered on the Arizona-Utah border in the U.S.

Scientists have likened the wealth of tracks and tail-drag marks on the
three-quarter acre site to a crowded 'dinosaur dance floor.'

They believe the remote dry wilderness was once a sandy desert oasis
190 million years ago. It was then in the tropics as part of the
supercontinent Pangaea.

'We're looking at an area much like the Sahara Desert with blowing sand
dunes,' geologist Winston Seiler reported in the international
paleontology journal Palaios.

'Areas between these sand dunes could have had ponds - oases.'

This would explain the sheer number of tracks as the exhausted thirsty giants traveled to the watering hole.

'Unlike other trackways that may have several to dozens of footprint
impressions, this particular surface has more than 1,000,' lead
researcher Professor Marjorie Chan from Utah University said.

'It was a place that attracted a crowd, kind of like a dance floor.'

Geologists Discover Dinosaur Dancefloor In Remote Wilderness Of America!!!!!!! FUCKUPAYMEUNDERRATEDOVERWORKEDUNDERPAID

The range of tracks suggest at least four dinosaur species ranging from youngsters to adults visited the site.

'The different size tracks (from one to 20 inches long) may tell us
that we are seeing mothers walking around with babies,' Seiler said.

He marked off 10 random plots of two square yards and counted 473
tracks - an average of 12 per square yard. His conservatively estimates
the site has more than 1,000 tracks, but he and Chan believe there
could be thousands.

They also discovered 2.4inch-wide tail-drag marks up to 24 feet long,
which are particularly rare. There are fewer than a dozen such sites
worldwide.

Geologists Discover Dinosaur Dancefloor In Remote Wilderness Of America!!!!!!! FUCKUPAYMEUNDERRATEDOVERWORKEDUNDERPAID

When the site was first visited in 2005, Professor Chan originally
thought they were strange potholes caused by erosion. However, on
closer examination she discovered dinosaur features such as obvious
claw, toe and heel marks.

After the dinosaurs left their prints the trample surface was
covered by shifting dunes, which eventually became Navajo Sandstone.
Then the rock slowly eroded away exposing the tracks.

'The tracks will eventually erode too,' Seiler said.

Geologists Discover Dinosaur Dancefloor In Remote Wilderness Of America!!!!!!! FUCKUPAYMEUNDERRATEDOVERWORKEDUNDERPAID

(L) A 14-inch-long Sauropodomorph dinosaur track is two
footprints in one. It was left by the front and back foot of a dinosaur
that walked on four legs (R) Scientists believe this 4-inch long
Grallator dinosaur track was made by a tiny dinosaur only 3ft tall.