Dinosaur Tracks The Next Steps

About this book

The latest advances in dinosaur ichnology are showcased in this comprehensive and timely volume, in which leading researchers and research groups cover the most essential topics in the study of dinosaur tracks. Some assess and demonstrate state-of-the-art approaches and techniques, such as experimental ichnology, photogrammetry, biplanar X-rays, and a numerical scale for quantifying the quality of track preservation. The high diversity of these up-to-date studies underlines that dinosaur ichnological research is a vibrant field, that important discoveries are continuously made, and that new methods are being developed, applied, and refined. This indispensable volume unequivocally demonstrates that ichnology has an important contribution to make toward a better understanding of dinosaur palaeobiology. Tracks and trackways are one of the best sources of evidence to understand and reconstruct the daily life of dinosaurs. They are windows on past lives, dynamic structures produced by living, breathing, moving animals now long extinct, and they are every bit as exciting and captivating as the skeletons of their makers.

Contents

Introduction / Peter L. Falkingham, Daniel Marty, and Annette Richter

Part I. Approaches and Techniques for Studying Dinosaur Tracks
1. Experimental and Comparative Ichnology / Jesper Milàn and Peter L. Falkingham
2. Close-Range Photogrammetry for 3D Ichnology: The Basics of Photogrammetric Ichnology / Neffra Matthews, Tommy Noble, and Brent Breithaupt
3. The Early Cretaceous Dinosaur Trackways in Münchehagen (Lower Saxony, Germany): 3D Photogrammetry as Basis for Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Shape Variation and Evaluation of Material Loss during Excavation / Oliver Wings, Jens N. Lallensack, and Heinrich Mallison
4. Applying Objective Methods to Subjective Track Outlines / Peter L. Falkingham
5. Beyond Surfaces: A Particle-Based Perspective on Track Formation / Stephen M. Gatesy and Richard G. Ellis
6. A Numerical Scale for Quantifying the Quality of Preservation of Vertebrate Tracks / Matteo Belvedere and James O. Farlow
7. Evaluating the Dinosaur Track Record: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Regional and Global Distribution, Scientific Importance, Preservation and Management of Tracksites / Luis Alcalá, Martin G. Lockley, Alberto Cobos, Luis Mampel, and Rafael Royo-Torres

Part II. Palaeobiology and Evolution from Tracks
8. Iberian Sauropod Tracks through Time: Variations in Sauropod Manus and Pes Morphologies / Diego Castanera, Vanda F. Santos, Laura Piñuela, Carlos Pascual, Bernat Vila, José I. Canudo, and José Joaquin Moratalla
9. The Flexion of Sauropod Pedal Unguals and Testing the Substrate Grip Hypothesis Using the Trackway Fossil Record / Lee E. Hall, Ashley E. Fragomeni, and Denver W. Fowler
10. Dinosaur Swim Track Assemblages: Characteristics, Contexts, and Ichnofacies Implications / Andrew R. C. Milner, and Martin G. Lockley
11. Two-Toed Tracks through Time: On the Trail of “Raptors” and their Allies / Martin G. Lockley, Jerry D. Harris, Rihui Li, Lida Xing, and Torsten van der Lubbe
12. Diversity, Ontogeny, or Both? A Morphometric Approach to Iguanodontian Ornithopod (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) Track Assemblages from the Berriasian (Lower Cretaceous) of North Western Germany / Jahn J. Hornung, Annina Böhme, Nils Schlüter, and Mike Reich
13. Uncertainty and Ambiguity in the Interpretation of Sauropod Trackways / Kent A. Stevens, Scott Ernst, and Daniel Marty
14. Dinosaur Tracks as “Four-Dimensional Phenomena” Reveal How Different Species Moved / Alberto Cobos, Francisco Gascó, Rafael Royo-Torres, Martin G. Lockley, and Luis Alcalá

Part III. Ichnotaxonomy and Trackmaker Identification
15. Analysing and Resolving Cretaceous Avian Ichnotaxonomy Using Multivariate Statistical Analyses: Approaches and Results / Lisa G. Buckley, Richard T. McCrea, and Martin G. Lockley
16. Elusive Ornithischian Tracks in the Famous Berriasian (Lower Cretaceous) “Chicken Yard” Tracksite of Northern Germany: Quantitative Differentiation between Small Tridactyl Trackmakers / Tom Hübner

Part IV. Depositional Environments and their Influence on the Track Record
17. Too Many Tracks: Preliminary Description and Interpretation of the Diverse and Heavily Dinoturbated Early Cretaceous “Chicken Yard” Ichnoassemblage (Obernkirchen Tracksite, Northern Germany) / Annette Richter and Annina Böhme
18. Dinosaur Tracks in Eolian Strata: New Insights into Track Formation, Walking Kinetics, and Trackmaker Behaviour / David B. Loope, and Jesper Milàn
19. Analysis of Desiccation Crack Patterns for Quantitative Interpretation of Fossil Tracks / Tom Schanz, Maria Datcheva, Hanna Haase, and Daniel Marty
20. A Review of the Dinosaur Track Record from Jurassic and Cretaceous Shallow Marine Carbonate Depositional Environments / Simone D’Orazi Porchetti, Massimo Bernardi, Andrea Cinquegranelli, Vanda Faria dos Santos, Daniel Marty, Fabio Massimo Petti, Paulo Sá Caetano, and Alexander Wagensommer

Dinosaur Track Terminology: A Glossary of Terms
List of Contributors
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Peter L. Falkingham is Lecturer in Vertebrate Biology in the School of Natural Sciences and Psychology at Liverpool John Moore's University, United Kingdom.

Daniel Marty is a research paleontologist at the "Paleontology A16" (Office de la culture, Canton Jura, Switzerland).

Annette Richter is Senior Custodian of Earth Sciences and head of the Natural History Department at the Lower Saxony State Museum at Hannover.