Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
logists still have not verified that this knowledge is being passed down or changed
over many generations. Nonetheless, our awareness of bird culture and tool use
lends to some fun (and not so crazy) speculation about whether or not Mesozoic
theropods used tools, had their own way of communicating life-saving information
tooneanother,andwhetheranyoftheseresultedintracefossils.Ofcourse,thelike-
lihood of recognizing tools or related traces would be minuscule, unless paleonto-
logists foundthem inthemouthorhandsofadinosaur,ortheynoticed anappropri-
ately sized and shaped rock sticking out of the side of a dinosaur egg. Nevertheless,
all of these insights on bird behavior make us look at dinosaurs with a little more
imagination, allowing us to wonder how many of their behaviors might have been
shared with birds' Mesozoic ancestors and contemporaries, and their traces.
Thus while keeping in mind bird traces as a bridge to understanding dinosaurs
of the past, as well as a few examples of how birds as modern dinosaurs affect the
worldtoday,itistimetothinkonagranderscalewithourichnologicalperspectives.
In the next chapter, we will explore how some dinosaur traces probably changed
Mesozoic landscapes, as well as how bird traces are currently changing our land-
scapes. Indeed, in some instances these changes may have even affected the evol-
ution of modern ecosystems, implying that dinosaurs left a lasting imprint that still
surrounds us and likely will persist well into our future as a species.
