Trace fossils provide important clues about the activities of ancient organisms (like non-avian dinosaurs!). Such fossils include the isolated footprints and extensive trackways left by dinosaurs which can tell a lot about their social behavior and life history. Many other types of trace fossils also exist. Recent and past discoveries include dinosaur burrows, tooth marks (on other dinosaur bones), poop (coprolites), feeding marks on plant fossils and even some rare instances of liquid waste (urolites) and regurgitates (fossil vomit -- sometimes called Jurassic puke). Maybe I need to stop there! :)
Some paleontologists include egg shells as "trace fossils" but I think most consider them to be "body fossils." However, just like dinosaur footprints which have their own "species names", so do egg shells because they have certain distinct characteristics but usually cannot be conclusively associated with a specific dinosaur species.
The cool nature of "trace fossils" is that they can tell "stories" related directly to dinosaur behavior, not just physical appearance. I am hoping you can contribute one (and only one) recent dinosaur trace fossil discovery beyond the information in our text book. This finding should be one that hasn't already been contributed by another class member. Please describe the discovery and its importance in your own words, and also provide a link to the source of information so the rest of us can learn more about it too. Thanks! Dr. B.
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Trace fossils have been found in Cajul Islands, Brazil. Coprolites and urolites from native species of spinosaurids and abelisaurid (they were found near their bones and trace footprints). There is some conversation why the feces of carnivores is more easily permineralized then herbivores, including the teeth and bones of their prey. Also, they describe how fossilized traces of urine are discovered and described. They conclude that these fossil sites are in danger of being lost to mining operations, so they should be considered national protected sites. It's a really interesting, though technical, article on some of the first dinosaur traces of poor and pee in Brazil.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981114001643
I found this Plos Blog with an interesting article published on January 27, 2015. The authors claim that researchers have found new 75-million-year old footfrint tracks with clawmarks of tyrannosaurids in British Columbia Canada. The tracks show that they were walking amongst each other in an 8.5 meter corridor together heading in the southwest direction. They find the fact that they walked together very interesting as a source to help them understand more about the social behaviors and locomotion of the tyrannosaurids. Although they can’t tell exactly which type of tyrannosaurids made the tracks, they are able to distinguish that they were walking at a regular pace of about 8.5 km. per hour. Using the scientific method of course, the researchers were sure to acknowledge the possibility that the tracks could have been from the dinosaurs walking in the same spot at separate times, but they feel that this is unlikely. Regardless, these new tracks are giving them new information on how these dinosaurs moved through Western Canada.
Source:
http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2015/01/27/fossilized-footprints-lead-scientists-prehistoric-path/
Trace Fossils are a very important bot just so you can tell the appearance and size of the specimen but also how an animal behaves with others of the same species. You can understand the habit and characteristics of the species.
I found this blog that contained 2 articles about trace fossils
The first part is the story of 3 'buddies' walking along a corridor in BC from 75 million years ago.
I also like this article because of the pictures, especially the one with the actual tracks.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103613
The second article in the blog goes on to talk about a crocodile type dinosaur from 200 million years ago.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103255
The source articles are very lengthy and go in depth on the two subjects. (worth a skim)
http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2015/01/27/fossilized-footprints-lead-scientists-prehistoric-path/
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/09/dinosaur-footprint-theft-man-accused-utah-mistake
The exciting world of trace fossils and the stolen treasure! Sounds like a movie, but in this article a man who worked for a construction company hijacked a fossilized footprint. Not only is this a sad loss for discovery because of the theft but the guilty man dumped the footprint in the Colorado river. The fossil was not recovered and this is a sad example of the value of fossils being undermined and not properly studied. Here we have a discovery and a tragedy.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/07/09/huge-trove-dinosaur-footprints-discovered-in-alaska/
i found this news which is about the huge trove of dinosaur footprints found in Alsaka in 2014. The discovery add edvidence to Fiorillo's convinction that dinosaur lived at high latitudes year-round during the late Cretaceous Period. Apart from the footprints, they also found that many deep tracks have preserved dinosaur skin and nail impression. Most of the tracks are from adults dinosaur. This discovery bring us to learn more about the dinosaur behavior.
Dinosaur footprints found in along the Yukon river in Alaska are so abundant that they were able to collect 50 specimens in 10 minutes. The importance of this is the great diversity that is shown by all the specimens, giving us evidence of an extinct eco system we didn't know existed in that area.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/dinosaurs/yukon-dinosaur-tracks-130925.htm
-Kathryn O'Connor
The first article I read didnt catch my attention due to any new discovery but the equation that they had isolated. This equation, paired with trace fossils can approximate the velocity of the being that made them!
http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org/tracefossils.htm
The 'new' find that I looked up was in texas. Many of the prints found had never before been seen by man, so this enable more research and discover to occur! I also liked the availability for the public to access this area and observe the tracks (hopefully with out damaging them!)
http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2014/09/09/dinosaur-footprints.html
This article discusses trace fossils, not of dinosaurs, but traces left by swimming reptiles in the Triassic period. Environmental factors including reduced sediment mixing promoted the fossilization of these trace fossils while underwater! It also helps support the hypothesis that there were many aquatic/swimming vertebrates during that time.
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/22184/20150209/swimming-triassic-reptiles-leave-tracks-ocean-floor.htm
Trace fossils on Mars?
That's what geobiologist, Nora Noffke interprets through the latest photos from the Curiosity program. She suggests that some of the textures on Mars resemble some of the microbe traps commonly found on the shallow water beds of Earth. It's an interesting hypothesis she raises and I'll be curious how other scientists will test this. You can read more about her ideas here.
The meat eater;the dinosaurs called T-rex and Albertosaurus. Few of the T-rex footprints were found until recent years. Last September this article was written on the topic, along with the tracks reading some of their social behavior. In 2011 hunter Aaron Fredlund found two T-rex track marks near Tumbler Ridge. Check this out. http://scienceworld.scholastic.com/Earth-Science-News/2014/09/T-Rex-Gangs
This article talks of a discovery in the past few years in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. A rather large group of Therizinosaur nests were found, which was really exciting for a number of reasons. Scientists were able to use this finding to further their knowledge of the social behaviors of the Therizinosaur. The fossils found had no dinosaur embryos, but had a series of plentiful clutches with small holes at the top, which suggests the babies pecked their way out of the egg.
The Therizinosaur is a large herbivore belonging to the theropods. They had a large, round stomach, stumpy legs, a head which resembled a turtle, a beak and a long neck, which according to this article, made them very odd theropods.
http://www.livescience.com/40904-therizinosaur-nesting-colony-discovered.html
Dreadnoughtus is a newly found dinosaur by the trace fossils. It is said to be one of the largest found which is including some of the most pieces to one dinosaur. The remains help justify the size and beauty of these amazing creatures.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/09/04/dinosaur-skeleton-discovered/15031803/
Gigandipus and Eubrontes, dinosaurs footprints have been found in southern Utah at the site of Johnson farm.These footprints actually helps us to have information about the weigh, the speed and the behavior of the creatures that made them.They give us also informations about the sociability of the dinosaurs.
http://www.oldearth.org/curriculum/history/earth_history_c1_Lesson7.htm
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/larkqury.htm
This article shows evidence of a dinosaur stampede in Queensland, Australia.
The page says that the trace fossils indicate that it took place with around 150 individual animals, maybe not just dinosaurs!
The sizes of the trace fossils indicate the sizes of the dinosaurs, some being therapods around 22 cm at the hip, and one in particular being 2.6 meters.
This can show a lot of things. The stampede was probably caused by a very large animal, perhaps the large therapod, The tyrannosaurus rex. I imagine that the scenario would have it chasing after smaller dinosaurs, as they all fled in a general direction. This is important because it can show us how they react to a most basic instinct, fear.
Alternatively, they may all have fled together, and they were all running from something else.
The article doesn't mention that there were any other fossils found, which indicates to me that perhaps none of the dinosaurs died. If that's true, it's very interesting that herbivores and carnivores were running alongside each other.
Theropod dinosaur eggs containing embryos were found in the Lourinhã Formation in Portugal; although the embryo itself is not a trace fossil, the egg shells are. This discovery is important for research because eggs can give insight into the nurturing behavior of dinosaurs; did they bury the eggs then leave, or did they stay and protect the eggs? This particular clutch, which had very porous shells, were buried for incubation. The dinosaur eggs also give us information that we can compare with later theropod eggs; it can show how the eggs evolved over time.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130530/srep01924/full/srep01924.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/130530-dinosaur-eggs-embryo-birds-jurassic-science/
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