The Study of Fossil Footprints
Fossils are physical evidence of living organisms preserved in rocks. Many people are familiar with the fossilized remnants of dinosaur bones or prehistoric plants, but there are other kinds of fossils that don't actually form from the remains themselves. A classic example of a "trace fossil" is a fossil footprint: the ancient track of a creature that perished thousands or millions of years ago
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Studying Footprints
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Ancient tracks preserved in sedimentary rock not only suggest the presence of a certain species or family of organisms in a given area at one time, they can also be clues as to the animal's locomotion, weight and behavior.
Dinosaurs
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Some of the most famous trace fossils have been left by dinosaurs, those diverse reptiles that dominated much of the Earth during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. A discovery of the footprints of a small dinosaur in present-day Poland, publicized in 2010, was used as evidence to suggest that dinosaurs evolved even earlier than previously thought.
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Hominids
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Early humans left behind fossil footprints as well. In 2009, a set of Homo erectus footprints were reported from Kenya that were estimated to be about 1.5 million years old---the oldest such trace fossils of an anatomically modern hominid at that point in time.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit footprint image by bedecs from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Do prints or footprints have to be a impression? Can they be a rock formed by a realy old imprint?
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I've recently renewed my interest in Fossils, particularly finding them, and I attribute this rebirth to no one other than my Daughter. Lately we have come across a few rather interesting pc's (none though as interesting as the first one we found together, about 2 yr's ago now and it's still sitting where it lay (when 'by chance' we stumbled upon it) and this is due to its weight and location although I'm pretty confident it will still be there when we finally do go back to retreive it, a fossilised bone emerging (about 5-6 inches) out of a fair size rock)... a few rather interesting pc's, i.e. a leg bone broken off about close to 3 inches below where the knee would have been, a fish head, a nice specimen of a shell which resembles a cone shell, and just now as I unpacked those we found yesterday I noticed that one has a foot print in it (not bi-pedal) consisting of 4 digits and its over-all size being maybe 1" across @ front bottom (from L' digit - R' digit) and (not knowing the type it's hard for me to say for certain what markings represent the outlining at the back/bottom but if I'm correct in my assumption of its shape) a little less then 1/3" across @ heel end. There also does not appear to be any indentations from noticeable claws/nails and it seems as though the digits were padded (and the indentations of the pads (the way each one individually sits/is positioned) are dead-on identical with what is to be expected. The point of it all (this comment) is to enquire as to some links, or establishments (Kitchener area), where I may be able to visit so that I may attain some information which will either help me to determine an approxiamte idea as to what it is I have or better yet to hand it/them over to an Expert so that (s)he may reveal to me what types of distant Life I hold the clues to in these Fossils. Thank You so very much for your time and assistance. EtherIV
