Trampled tracksite surface: Geologist Winston Seiler with some of the many dinosaur tracks found along the Arizona-Utah border.
Courtesy Nicole MillerA dinosaur tracksite discovered recently in the southwestern United States contains so many footprints it’s being heralded as a “dinosaur dance floor”.
Winston Seiler, a geologist at the University of Utah published a paper in the October 2008 issue of the journal Palaios that details the new site. Professor Marjorie Chan, the chair of the university’s geology and geophysics department co-wrote the paper.
Along the dinosaur trail: Geologist Winston Seiler walks where dinosaurs once trampled the ground. The site is in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness along the Arizona-Utah border.
Courtesy Roger SeilerDuring the early Jurassic period - 190 million years ago - the region was a desert larger than today’s Sahara desert, and it’s thought the tracksite was located at an oasis where a variety of dinosaurs gathered for water. Today the ancient desert is a layer of sandstone located in the Coyote Buttes North area of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness along the Arizona and Utah border. Thousands of footprints litter the three-quarter-acre area – in some cases dozens of tracks per square yard. Walking across the tracksite reminded Seiler and Chan of a popular arcade game.
“Get out there and try stepping in their footsteps, and you feel like you are playing the game ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ that teenagers dance on,” said Chan. “This kind of reminded me of that – a dinosaur dance floor – because there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks.”
Four separate types of tracks have been identified at the trample site along with some very rare dinosaur tail-drag marks. The study of trace fossils such as these is called ichnolology. The science has earned a growing respect in recent years after being long regarded as a secondary field of study. Major strides have been made in dinosaur behavior from studying the footprints they left behind. Since it’s difficult to ascertain the exact identity of the track maker (unless you find its skeleton at the end of its footsteps), dinosaur footprints are given their own classification such as Grallator, Eubrontes, and Sauropodomorph. You can read more about dinosaur track names here.
For a long time the footprints at Coyote Buttes North were thought to be nothing more than naturally occurring potholes eroded by water out of the Navajo Sandstone Formation. That opinion is still held in some circles but Seiler and Chan are convinced they were made by dinosaurs and display many footprint traits.
Map showing location of the tracksite
Courtesy Winston SeilerIf you’re interested in viewing the trackway yourself - get in line. Access to the area requires a permit (and a $7 fee) and advanced permit sales are already backlogged four months out. Call 435) 688-3246 or go online at http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/arolrsmain.html (and click Coyote Buttes) for information. You can also take a chance to acquire one of the 10 additional daily permits issued a day prior to your visit to the site at the Paria Contact Station between March 15 and November 14 or at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Field Office in Kanab, Utah between November 15 – March 14.
University of Utah story
Discovery News blog story
Glen Kuban's great dinosaur tracks website
Myles J. McLeod's dinosaur track info site
More on Navajo Sandstone dinosaur ichnofossils
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