Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
These tracks inspired a compelling vision of parents and young performing
their own version of a “Great Cretaceous Walk,” leaving traces of their late spring
or early summer foray on a wet, sandy floodplain next to a polar river, perhaps like
the one I had studied in Alaska. Were they foraging, stopping occasionally to snack
on invertebrates burrowing into the sand below their feet? Were they looking for
others of their species, seeking companionship after a long dark polar winter? Or
were they just reveling in the sunshine of a longer day, enjoying a warm breeze that
fluffed their feathers as it wound through the river valley? That is the beauty of di-
nosaur tracks, as records of life as it happened while also encouraging fantasies of
what once was, back then, and very close to the place where human eyes first re-
cognized them for what they were.
So even though these tracks were only a drop in the proverbial bucket when it
comes to paleontological discoveries, and still did not completely erase the reputa-
tion of Australia as a place forgotten by dinosaur trace fossils, they helped to affirm
the most important point we paleontologists like to make about the fossil record:
it gets better every day. Knowing this, we are encouraged to continue looking, and
sometimes with the help of our friends we find what we're looking for, dinosaur
trace fossils or otherwise.
