Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways

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Amblydactylus, Wintonopus, and Skartopus dinosaur tracks at Lark Quarry. DinosaurTrackLarkQuarry.jpg
Amblydactylus, Wintonopus, and Skartopus dinosaur tracks at Lark Quarry.
Close-up digital image of Dinosaur Tracks at Lark Quarry. Theropod's Tracks.jpg
Close-up digital image of Dinosaur Tracks at Lark Quarry.
Close-up digital image of Dinosaur Tracks at Lark Quarry. Close up of dinosaur tracks.jpg
Close-up digital image of Dinosaur Tracks at Lark Quarry.
Wide-angle photo showing some of the overburden which has been cleared and in the foreground are the dinosaur tracks. Lark Quarry - overburden.jpg
Wide-angle photo showing some of the overburden which has been cleared and in the foreground are the dinosaur tracks.
Close-up of the overburden that covered the dinosaur tracks. Lark Quarry - overburden, close up.jpg
Close-up of the overburden that covered the dinosaur tracks.
External view of Conservation Building at Lark Quarry. ConversationBuilding LarkQuarry.jpg
External view of Conservation Building at Lark Quarry.

Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry Conservation Park (also known just as Lark Quarry or Dinosaur Stampede) in Queensland, Australia is considered to be the site of the world's only known record of a dinosaur stampede, [1] with fossilised footprints are interpreted as a predator stalking and causing a stampede of around 150 two-legged dinosaurs. This interpretation has been challenged in recent years, with evidence suggesting it may have been a natural river crossing. [2] [3]

Contents

The fossils date to either the Albian or Turonian periods between 104 and 92 million years ago, and are part of the Winton Formation sandstone. In 2015, Winton Shire Council invited the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History to take over the operation of public guided tours at Dinosaur Stampede National Monument. This joint initiative, implemented in April 2016, provides visitors with a broader understanding of unique Australian dinosaurs and the world they inhabited. In 2018, Dinosaur Stampede National Monument received 14,180 visitors.[ citation needed ]

The Lark Quarry site is about 110 km (68 mi) south-west of the western Queensland town of Winton. [4]

Origin

The traditional account is that 104 to 92 million years ago, a group of perhaps 180 chicken-sized coelurosaurs and Bantam to emu-sized ornithopods were disturbed by the arrival of a single much larger theropod, perhaps Australovenator or a related form, which may have been up to 6 metres long with 50-centimetre feet. The two smaller track types are placed within their own ichnotaxa Skartopus (small coelurosaurs) and Wintonopus (ornithopods), while the larger tracks were referred to cf. Tyrannosauropus and originally interpreted as a large theropod.

The Skartopus and Wintonopus trackmakers were thought to have stampeded past the cf. Tyrannosauropus trackmaker (that walked in the opposite direction), leaving thousands of footprints in lake sediment. [5] However, in 1994 the ichnotaxon Tyrannosauropus were identified as large plant-eater dinosaur tracks, [6] and when combined with analyses to distinguish three-toed carnivore and herbivore dinosaur footprints the large tracks attributed to Tyrannosauropus at Lark Quarry were interpreted as being produced by a large herbivore similar to Muttaburrasaurus , rather than by a predatory theropod, and were suggested to belong to the ichnogenus Amblydactylus instead. [7] [8]

Research by Anthony Romilio and colleagues [8] [2] [9] casts doubt on the original interpretation. Analysis of the sediments indicates that they were deposited by a seasonal water course with water flowing at different depths and speeds at different times. The footprints were most likely made over a period of time, perhaps several days, by dinosaurs crossing the channel. The authors also found the shape variation of Skartopus and Wintonopus overlapped and were even preserved within the same individual trackway. With no significant difference in the form of the footprints, the authors attributed both Skartopus and Wintonopus were made by the same type of herbivorous bipedal dinosaur trackmakers.

Whatever actually took place, not long after the incident, the water level began to rise, covering the tracks with sandy sediments before the mud had dried. The footprints were buried beneath sand and mud as the water levels continued to rise and fall. Over thousands of millennia, the rich river plain with sandy channels, swamps and lush lowland forest dried up. The sediment covering the footprints was compressed to form rock.

Discovery and preservation

The footprints were first discovered in the 1960s by station manager, Glen Seymour, in the nearby Seymour Quarry.

Palaeontologists from the Queensland Museum, including Mary Wade and Tony Thulborn and the University of Queensland excavated Lark Quarry during 1976–77 (the quarry was named after Malcolm Lark, a volunteer who removed a lot of the overlying rock.) All together they removed more than 60 tonnes of rock, and uncovered about 210 square metres of the layer with the fossils. This shows about 3300 dinosaur footprints.

A sheltering roof was built over the site but did not stop the gradual damage caused by exposure to the weather. The present Conservation Building that covers the trackways was constructed in 2002. This building protects the main collection of footprints from damage by stabilising temperature and humidity fluctuations, stops water running over the footprints and keeps people and wildlife off the footprints themselves.

The Dinosaur Stampede National Monument was included in the Australian National Heritage List on 20 July 2004, for values of rarity and research. [10]

It has been claimed that the Lark Quarry tracks served as inspiration and "scientific underpinning" for the Gallimimus stampede scene in the film Jurassic Park ; these tracks were initially interpreted as representing a dinosaur stampede caused by the arrival of a theropod predator. The idea that the tracks represent a stampede has since been contested, and a consultant to Jurassic Park has denied the tracks served as inspiration for the movie. [11] [12] [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A fossil track or ichnite is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the years, many ichnites have been found, around the world, giving important clues about the behaviour of the animals that made them. For instance, multiple ichnites of a single species, close together, suggest 'herd' or 'pack' behaviour of that species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Rose Formation</span>

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<i>Eubrontes</i>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winton Formation</span>

The Winton Formation is a Cretaceous geological formation in central-western Queensland, Australia. It is late Albian to early Turonian in age. The formation blankets large areas of central-western Queensland. It consists of sedimentary rocks such as sandstone, siltstone and claystone. The sediments that make up these rocks represent the remnants of the river plains that filled the basin left by the Eromanga Sea - an inland sea that covered large parts of Queensland and central Australia at least four times during the Early Cretaceous. Great meandering rivers, forest pools and swamps, creeks, lakes and coastal estuaries all left behind different types of sediment.

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<i>Australovenator</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Australovenator is a genus of megaraptoran theropod dinosaur from Cenomanian -age Winton Formation of Australia. It is known from partial cranial and postcranial remains which were described in 2009 by Scott Hocknull and colleagues, although additional descriptions and analyses continue to be published. It is the most complete predatory dinosaur discovered in Australia. It has been suggested that Australovenator is a sister taxon to Fukuiraptor, although some phylogenetic analyses find it to be a more derived member of the Megaraptora, possibly being part of the main Megaraptoridae family itself.

<i>Wintonotitan</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Wintonotitan is a genus of titanosauriform dinosaur from late Albian -age Winton Formation of Australia. It is known from partial postcranial remains.

<i>Macropodosaurus</i> Therizinosaurid ichnogenus from the Late Cretaceous period

Macropodosaurus is an ichnogenus of therizinosaurid footprints from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, North America and Poland. The ichnogenus is currently monotypic only including the type ichnospecies M. gravis, described and named in 1964.

<i>Tyrannosauripus</i> Dinosaur footprint

Tyrannosauripus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint. It was discovered by geologist Charles "Chuck" Pillmore in 1983 and formally described by Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt in 1994. This fossil footprint from northern New Mexico is 96 cm long and given its Late Cretaceous age, it very likely belonged to the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. In 2016 the size of this individual was estimated at 11.4 meters and 5.8-6.9 tonnes. Similar tridactyl dinosaur tracks in North America were discovered earlier and named Tyrannosauropus in 1971, but they were later recognized as hadrosaurid tracks and their description deemed inadequate, with Tyrannosauropus regarded as a nomen dubium. True footprints likely from Tyrannosaurus would not be found until the discovery of Tyrannosauripus. In 2007, a large tyrannosaurid track was found also in eastern Montana. In 2016, a probable fossil trackway of Tyrannosaurus was discovered in Wyoming.

Wintonopus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint. Its footprints have been found at Lark Quarry in Queensland Australia. The genus is named after the Winton Formation in which the tracks were found. Other tracks were found in the Broome Sandstone of Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia.

Abelichnus is an extinct ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint from the Candeleros Formation and the Rio Limay Formation. The type ichnospecies, Abelichnus astigerrae, was first discovered in Argentina in 1987 and was recorded as the biggest known dinosaur footprint ever discovered. Abelichnus probably grew to a size of 12.5-13 meters long.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Age of Dinosaurs</span> Museum of Natural History in Winton, Queensland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">20th century in ichnology</span>

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<i>Bellatoripes</i> Trace fossil of tyrannosaurid footprints

Bellatoripes is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a large theropod dinosaur so far known only from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. The tracks are large and three-toed, and based on their size are believed to have been made by tyrannosaurids, such as Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus. Fossils of Bellatoripes are notable for preserving trackways of multiple individual tyrannosaurids all travelling in the same direction at similar speeds, suggesting the prints may have been made by a group, or pack, of tyrannosaurids moving together. Such inferences of behaviour cannot be made with fossil bones alone, so the record of Bellatoripes tracks together is important for understanding how large predatory theropods such as tyrannosaurids may have lived.

Wakinyantanka is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a large theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Wakinyantanka tracks are large with three long, slender toes with occasional impressions of a short hallux and narrow metatarsals. Wakinyantanka was the first dinosaur track to be discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, which remain rare in the preservational conditions of the rocks. The potential trackmakers may be a large oviraptorosaur or a small tyrannosaurid.

References

  1. ↑ "Lark Quarry Conservation Park". National parks, marine parks, and forests. Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  2. 1 2 Romilio, Anthony; Tucker, Ryan T.; Salisbury, Steven W. (1 January 2013). "Reevaluation of the Lark Quarry dinosaur Tracksite (late Albian–Cenomanian Winton Formation, central-western Queensland, Australia): no longer a stampede?". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (1): 102–120. Bibcode:2013JVPal..33..102R. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.694591. ISSN   0272-4634. S2CID   131090557.
  3. ↑ Romilio, Anthony; Salisbury, Steven W. (14 July 2014). "No dinosaur stampede at Lark Quarry – so what really happened?". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  4. ↑ Google (5 August 2022). "Winton to Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  5. ↑ "Australian National Heritage list: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts". Archived from the original on 18 May 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
  6. ↑ Lockley, Martin G.; Hunt, Adrian P. (1 February 1994). "A track of the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus from close to the Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary, northern New Mexico". Ichnos. 3 (3): 213–218. doi:10.1080/10420949409386390. ISSN   1042-0940.
  7. ↑ Australia’s biggest carnivorous dinosaur forced to take a walk Archived 29 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine UQ News, 16 December 2010
  8. 1 2 Romilio, Anthony; Salisbury, Steven W. (1 April 2011). "A reassessment of large theropod dinosaur tracks from the mid-Cretaceous (late Albian–Cenomanian) Winton Formation of Lark Quarry, central-western Queensland, Australia: A case for mistaken identity". Cretaceous Research. 32 (2): 135–142. Bibcode:2011CrRes..32..135R. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.11.003. ISSN   0195-6671.
  9. ↑ Romilio, Anthony; Salisbury, Steven W. (1 September 2014). "Large dinosaurian tracks from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Turonian) portion of the Winton Formation, Lark Quarry, central-western Queensland, Australia: 3D photogrammetric analysis renders the 'stampede trigger' scenario unlikely". Cretaceous Research. 51: 186–207. Bibcode:2014CrRes..51..186R. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2014.06.003. ISSN   0195-6671.
  10. ↑ "Lark Quarry (Place ID 105664)". Australian Heritage Database . Australian Government.
  11. ↑ Martin, A. J. (2014). Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by their Trace Fossils. London: Pegasus Books. pp. 66–67. ISBN   978-1605984995.
  12. ↑ Romilio, A. (2015). "Dinosaur stampede stopped in its tracks". Australasian Science. 36 (2): 24–27. ISSN   1442-679X. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Shapiro, A. D. (2013). "The great dinosaur stampede that never was?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.

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