Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
modern birds did indeed reflect their evolutionary relatedness. What Darwin also
got right was how birds changed the face of our modern ecosystems. Darwin had
also very likely seen tracks of rheas ( Rhea pennata and R. pennata ) during his
travels in South America, which closely resembled the fossil tracks Hitchcock de-
scribed. Most important, though, both of their initial studies cleared intellectual
trails, on which subsequent generations of biologists and paleontologists, likewise
making careful observations of tracks and other traces, led to broader and more ec-
lectic views of how the earth's surface has been and will continue to be shaped by
the traces of dinosaur behavior.
Regardless of how quickly our technological tools might serve us in such en-
deavors, the preceding methods and concepts can be done and understood by using
the greatest scientific tools we already possess—our senses and cognition.
Dinosaurs Without Bones: Trace Fossils of the Future
Sonowthatweknowthatwearelivingwithdinosaurtraces,bothancientandmod-
ern, we can also better appreciate the role of individual dinosaur trace fossils in our
understanding of these iconic animals. But what then to do with this ichnologically
bestowed enlightenment, a newly realized super-power that allows for recognizing
howdinosaur trace fossils superbly augment and oftentimes surpass the paleontolo-
gical worth of dinosaur bones in interpreting dinosaur behavior?
Obviously, we must apply what we've learned about dinosaur trace fossils of
our paleontological past to those of the future. With that goal in mind, here are
words of advice and predictions, given with full awareness that my own knowledge
of dinosaur trace fossils, much like a landscape occupied by dozens of small bur-
rowing ornithopods, is full of holes.
We'll find more dinosaur trace fossils, and they'll be different. Oneofthemost
excitedly received dinosaur topics in recent years was All Yesterdays (2012), coau-
thoredbypaleontologistsDarrenNaishandC.M.Kosemenandco-illustratedbypa-
leoartists John Conway and Scott Harman. Although only 100 pages long, and with
its illustrations taking up more space than its words, its inventive artistic render-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search