SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 20, 2008
"Dinosaur Dance Floor" Uncovered In Utah
Geologists Discover Prehistoric Animal Tracks On Arizona-Utah Border
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Photo
In this undated photo released by the University of Utah, geologist Winston Seiler poses next a trackway, or set of prints made by the same dinosaur, as it walked through a wet, sandy oasis some 190 million years ago. (AP PHOTO)
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Photo Essay
Land Of The Found
Images of some recent fossil finds, from man's ancestors to extinct dinosaurs.
The site along the Arizona-Utah border is offering a rich new set of clues about the lives of dinosaurs 190 million years ago.
Back then, large stretches of the West were a Sahara-like desert. More than 1,000 tracks were found in what would have been a watery oasis nestled among towering, wind-whipped sand dunes.
Those footprints could provide fodder for future researchers trying to understand dinosaurs that survived in what many considered a "vast, dry, uninhabitable desert," said Marjorie Chan, professor of geology at the University of Utah and one of the authors of a new study of the site.
"Maybe it really wasn't as lifeless as we think," Chan said Monday.
The discovery adds yet another site to the region's long list of dinosaur hot spots. The difference, though, is sheer numbers. Scientists estimate there are more than 1,000 - and perhaps thousands - of tracks at the site, which is in a protected area of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.
In some places, there are a dozen footprints in a square yard.
"It was a place that attracted a crowd, kind of like a dance floor," Chan said.
Researchers identified four different kinds of tracks in the rock but haven't determined the specific species that left them behind.
Some of the footprints - once thought to be potholes formed by erosion - measure 16 inches across and have three toes and a heel. Others are smaller and more circular.
The area also includes what researchers think are rare tail drag marks.
Winston Seiler, who studied the site for a master's thesis, said the area may have been a popular gathering spot for adults and youngsters alike. The location may have been one of many where Early Jurassic dinosaurs stopped for refreshment before moving along.
Seiler imagines dinosaurs were "happy to be at this place, having wandered up and down many a sand dune, exhausted from the heat and the blowing sand, relieved and happy to come to a place where there was water."
The study's findings were published in the October issue of the science journal Palaios.
"It's an exciting site and deserving of a lot more work," said Jim Kirkland, Utah's state paleontologist, who was not involved with the study.
He's hoping paleontologists begin a large-scale survey of the site to better understand what's there and what stories the tracks might tell.
Dinosaur tracks can provide important insight about dinosaur behavior and movements across the landscape, said Andrew Milner, paleontologist at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm in southwestern Utah.
The newly discovered site, about three miles from the nearest road, is part of a protected wilderness area that also includes a much-photographed geologic formation called "The Wave" - a gallery of striped, twisted sandstone.
Twenty permits are issued each day to enter the area. Linda Price, the monument's manager, expects interest in the area will jump with word of the dinosaur track site.
"I'm thinking this could be just as big as The Wave," Price said. "It's really, really cool."
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See all 67 CommentsBecause "Scientists" say so.
"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"
Coming out on DVD tomorrow folks.
a MUST watch.
www.expelledthemovie.com
-Aaaah the deception. There is no such thing as "prehistoric". There is only HISTORIC.
Despite what these "scientists" claim.
Funny how ignorant people attempt to redefine language.
Prehistoric is an adjective describing events that took place before the written word existed to describe them, so if you believe that humans were around to record the existence and activities of dinosaurs, the fact that no such written records exist from 65 million years ago and before, suggests that your belief is baseless, and contradicted by fact.
So to "StopSocialis", first become literate before you attempt to redefing language.
Typo, make that "redefine"...
Well someone knew you were coming, and so they let you in.
Posted by snarkysnark at 02:54 AM : Oct 21, 2008
I''ll correct you before one of the creationists does it - Adama and Eve were frolicking with the dinos only 6,000 years ago (the whole shebang started at 4004 BC). This was about the time that Eve was having a conversation with a snake about an apple. Want to know more about this? Just consult any high school biology textbook (i.e. the Bible) in Kansas. LOL This is the kind of nonsense these fools want to inflict on your kids in science class.
1. a general principle formulated to account for certain observable phenomenom. 2. a body of principles governing the study or practice of an art or discipline. 3. Abstract reasoning. 4. an assumption or guess.
A scientific theory (such as Darwin''s theory of evolution or Einstein%u2019s theory of relativity is definition 1 - not to be confused with "an assumption or guess." definition 4; obviously they are very different.
I dislike it when folks confuse the two in order to push creationist or intelligent design agendas.
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Posted by dc5grl
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Creationism is a fact of life liberal.
Posted by claytonantho at 08:35 AM : Oct 21, 2008
Do you know what a theory is? At it''s essence it is a widely-accepted explanation for a set of observations; it allows one to mechanistically explain why things are as they are. So, what makes a theory truly scientific? Well, for one thing it has to be able to make predictions that are testable and falsifiable. For example, our understanding of evolution would allow one to hypothesize that the DNA sequences of dogs and humans are more similar than flies and humans. They are. The fundamental problem the ID/creationist crowd has in terms of trying to get science to take them seriously is that their ideas are in no way scientifically testable. It''s like arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin - how are you going to design an experiment to determine the answer? So scientific theories are not just guesses. They''re the underpinnings of science in all fields -physics, chemistry, biology, etc. They provide the framework of science.
Posted by gop_will_win at 08:55 AM : Oct 21, 2008
Next why don''t you extend your search a little more widely, such as going to any museum of natural history in any decent-sized city. I have a feeling you won''t see any co-mingled human and dinosaur tracks.
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Posted by rational_1
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Those museums were created by Satan to lure man inside and lose his faith in God.
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Thos
e museums were created by Satan to lure man inside and lose his faith in God.
Posted by gop_will_win at 09:22 AM : Oct 21, 2008
I think you''ve been playing with the rattlesnakes out back a little too long. Many major religions have made peace with evolution (probably because their previous battles with science didn''t turn out too well for them). Doesn''t that tell you something?
Don''t you see the idiocy of Biblical literalism? When was the last time you saw a talking snake? What happened to all the water that covered almost the entire planet during the flood? Eve must be guilty of incest if it all started out with Adam, Eve and the two boys - how else did we all get here? God approved of this then? If the Bible is taken literally, it reads like a bad acid trip.
Don''''t you see the idiocy of Biblical literalism? When was the last time you saw a talking snake? What happened to all the water that covered almost the entire planet during the flood? Eve must be guilty of incest if it all started out with Adam, Eve and the two boys - how else did we all get here? God approved of this then? If the Bible is taken literally, it reads like a bad acid trip.
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Posted by rational_1
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There is only one correct religion and I follow it.
Posted by gop_will_win at 09:35 AM : Oct 21, 2008
Okay - let me assume it''s based on the Bible.
Now, which version (eg. Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Catholic, Mormon) of the Bible, and which translation (eg, King James or New American Standard)? Why that one? Are the others, which differ, flawed? Can they all be the word of God? Are you sure whatever version you''re following is an accurate translation from Aramaic or Hebrew?
That statement of yours above is probably the exact same thing some Islamocrazy in Iraq is thinking just before he detonates his suicide bomb. Why is he wrong and you''re right?
That statement of yours above is probably the exact same thing some Islamocrazy in Iraq is thinking just before he detonates his suicide bomb. Why is he wrong and you''''re right?
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Posted by rational_1
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No they cant, thats why I used the correct translation and version of the bible. To do otherwise would be just like worshipping stones.
Posted by claytonantho
claytonantho = nutjob
Would you like a medal?
Would you like a medal?
Posted by RepForBarack
Claytonantho isn''t a nutjob, he''s just uneducated. Clayton, try picking up a book other than the bible and expand your brain a little.
These Bible thumping kooks never cease to amaze me with their ignorant lack of scientific knowlege.
Wish you nutcakes would do us all a favor and drink your kool-aid and depart from this world.
Posted by rational_1
Having tried both they are only the same if taken simultaneously.
Posted by rrozsa at 10:47 AM : Oct 21, 2008
You''d be surprised at how many liberals take his/her bait--they just jump in the boat! I think it''s hilarious.
Posted by easeup at 11:03
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Nothing surprises me anymore about political/religious extremists -- on both sides. I myself am a conservative and a Christian, but I''m certainly not naive enough to think any of us here on earth have all the answers. We are, after all, limited to only five senses! ;-)
When Constantine was arranging the books of the Bible to be assembled in 534 AD, he had quite a task. Public education did not exist in the same way it exists today, and only the most wealthy had the capacity to read. In those years Pagans were dominant and they controlled populations by oppressing them and depriving public education.
If one takes a snapshot at life in those times, and chooses to live in that mindset, we will see that many follow it and opt to prefer religious education over all others and live with a closed mind. It is just like 534 A.D. was last year for many.
The Pope under urging of the Cardinals, incarcerated Galileo nearly 1050 years later for publishing evidence that supports proof that the Earth was not in the center of the universe, but instead there was a sun and planets orbited the sun. The Catholics eventually saw that scientific beliefs were mind opening and confronted the limitations of their understanding and relationships with nearly everything. Some don''t believe they went far enough and promtped protestors, who spawned Protestant religions.
The value of having an open mind and healthy relationship with the known and the unknown is precident of faith. Faith, without an open mind, incapacitates the soul and arrests developement.
...Dinosaur Dance Floor...I think we should cue the music to ''The Move'' and their 1968/69 [minor] Hit ''Brontosaurus''
Someday scientists will discover human footprints next to those of the dinosaurs and what will men say then?? The same thing...
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Posted by adrew2u2
But they haven''t found human footprints next to dinosaurs. Yet you still believe they existed together 6000 years ago? Based on what evidence?
Posted by adrew2u2
Isn''t that what your christian brothers believe?
Posted by govwatch
That''s your problem - it''s only YOUR research that ever found anything of the kind.
Posted by Displeased
Displeased: You need to go to Glenrose, TX to Dinosaur Valley where there is evidence in the rock of man and dinosaur tracks in the same layer. I have been there and have seen them for myself. Also the Creation Museum is there in Glenrose (you can look on the internet to their website if you do not believe me). Scientist think alot of things that just are not so. I challenge you to go there and see for your unbelieving self.
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Posted by BARCAR55
They are eroded dino tracks. When did humans have 20 inch feet? That would make them over 11 feet tall...
www.badarchaeology.net/data/ooparts/paluxy.php
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