Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
thing less would be irresponsible. (I say the last facetiously, but a small troupe of
creative folks actually did write and perform a short musical number retelling the
original story of the dinosaur stampede, shown at the 2012 Museum Australia Na-
tional Association meeting in Adelaide. Could a Broadway production be far be-
hind, but now with the anticlimactic ending inserted?)
Notsofast. There'sonelittle problem with suchsimple anddefinitive declara-
tions. What if Romilio and Salisbury were also wrong? What if they had neglected
afewcluesintheirstudy,orcarriedouttheresearchinaless-than-careful way?For
instance, we've seemingly forgotten all about one of the cast of characters in this
drama, which was the medium-sized ornithopod that first left tracks at the site, be-
fore the arrival of the terrorized flock and the big … well, whatever. Were its tracks
studiedinthesameway,totestwhetheritwasalsoanornithopodornot?Also,how
about revisiting
Australovenator
as a possible trackmaker?
First of all, the tracks made by the medium-sized ornithopod at Lark Quarry
presentwhatscientistsmightcalla“control”atthissite.Inotherwords,thesecould
becomparedtothelargerthree-toedtrackstoseewhetherornottheymatchinform.
If they did match, this would have strengthened Romilio and Salisbury's assertion
that the statistical technique they used could be applied to three-toed tracks of dif-
feringsizes,andthattheycoulddistinguishmorethanjusttheonetrackmakeratthe
tracksite. Alas, they did not do this, or perhaps they did but it was not mentioned in
their published paper.
How about
Australovenator
as the new antagonist (or protagonist, depending
on perspective) for the Lark Quarry tracks? This isn't a completely crazy question
to ask, because “Banjo” is currently the largest known theropod in that part of
the world, and its bones come from rocks of about the same age as the tracksite.
However,itsfeet,whichareknownfromwell-preservedfootbones,seemtoosmall
to fit the 60+ cm tracks, a sort of Cretaceous Cinderella story in which the slipper
(footprint) does not fit.
