"Dinosaur Dance Floor" Uncovered In Utah

(AP)  Utah geologists say they have discovered prehistoric animal tracks so densely packed on a 3/4-acre rock site, they're calling it a "dinosaur dance floor."

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."

[rational_1]

You are? Then can you explain how any given functional protein would actually form on an accidental basis?
Posted by txpiper at 03:58 AM : Oct 24, 2008

Actually let me ask you a question about how you would interpret the following findings. There is a family of proteins called ion channels, that allow ions to pass through pores at their centers and are important for nerve cells to communicate with one another. This family of ion channels consists of 4 main members. If I look at their amino acid sequences I can see that they have a lot of similarities, including portions that are identical. Two of these channels (call them A and B) pass negatively-charged ions while the other two (call them C and D) pass positively charged ions through their pores. Not only do A, B, C and D share sequence similarities but A and B are more similar to each other than either is to C or D (and vice versa). My conclusion is that all four came from a common ancestral channel that first diverged into two (A/B vs. C/D), and then those two each split into two and evolved separately. That explains the amino acid sequence similarities. Do you have an alternate hypothesis?

[rational_1]

You are? Then can you explain how any given functional protein would actually form on an accidental basis?
Posted by txpiper at 03:58 AM : Oct 24, 2008

What you wrote illustrates that you do not understand the mechanism of evolution (pretty common actually). The driving force for evolution is selection (as in natural selection). No protein just forms spontaneously into a finished product on an accidental basis. Randomness occurs via mutation, and most of that is deleterious, but selection then occurs to ensure that only functional (or perhaps most functional forms for that environment) survive. Functional proteins don''t just randomly assemble out of amino acids - that would be impossible. Random mutation provides the raw materials, but natural selection winnows them down so that only the most advantageous (or least disadvantageous) forms survive. No intelligent design is required: all that is needed is a large amount of starting material (like a whole planet full of biology), a lot of time and the understanding that selection pressure exists.

[txpiper]

rational_1

%u201C%u2026much of molecular biology wouldn''''t make sense if not for the theory of evolution. And I am being objective about it%u201D

You are? Then can you explain how any given functional protein would actually form on an accidental basis?

[rational_1]

Anyone with any knowledge and objectivity at all about what happens at the molecular level knows that evolution is not possible.
Posted by txpiper at 12:02 AM : Oct 23, 2008

Well, my area of scientific expertise is molecular neurobiology which has led me to develop a fair bit of knowledge of molecular biology - and I don''t agree with your statement. In fact I would say the converse is true, that much of molecular biology wouldn''t make sense if not for the theory of evolution. And I am being objective about it.

[rational_1]

The fossil was transported to a professional laboratory where 800 X-rays were performed in a CT Scan procedure. Laboratory technicians verified compression and distribution features clearly seen in both prints, human and dinosaur. This removes any possibility that the prints were carved or altered.
Posted by BARCAR55 at 12:14 PM : Oct 22, 2008

Could you tell me in which peer-reviewed scientific journal they published their findings? If not, then this is just a bunch of hot air.

[txpiper]

"Anyone with any brains at all knows evolution is a fact"

Anyone with any knowledge and objectivity at all about what happens at the molecular level knows that evolution is not possible.

[thinker89]

Evolution?...that%u2019s kinda funny! Wait! What is it again, can someone please explain it to me.........I was never good at figuring out how something could come from nothing. You know-like instantly!:)

Oh wait I get it! Evolution is allot like legos!:) you have one block that basically is nothing and is extremely over priced....but when you add extras it becomes more complex, but sometimes those extras get lost, that would be like the missing link...ya I get it now!:) So you have one piece turn into a grand Lego set instantly....with the help of an instruction manual! Oh wait did I just slip up: did I use the naughty, naughty words.......the kind that Santa will put coal in your stocking over! GASP did I just say there was some kind intelligent design.......oh I better get rid of that Lego idea....to risky! Might give away the secret that no one wants to know (there is smarter creator), think about it!

I know! evolution is more like chocolate pudding...same consistency as ***!:)

[displeased]

TAKEN FROM THE CREATION MUSEUM WEBSITE IN GLENROSE
Posted by BARCAR55

This museum you mention is owned by Carl Baugh, who appears to practice pseudoscience, something I personally find skeptical.

[octavianfdlr]

WOW! If someone posted it on the web, it must be true.
(LOL)

Now let''s see... It says on the web that the footprints are fake, so they must be. It says on the web that the footprints are authentic, so they must be. Authentic fakes!

[barcar55]

TAKEN FROM THE CREATION MUSEUM WEBSITE IN GLENROSE:


The Creation Evidence Museum is in possession of a set of Cretaceous footprints discovered by amateur archaeologist Alvis Delk[1] of Stephenville, Texas. This fossil of dense Glen Rose limestone consists of Dinosaur footprint (Acrocanthosaurus) and an eleven-inch human footprint intruded by the dinosaur print.


In early July, 2000 Alvis Delk, assisted by James Bishop (both of Stephenville, Texas), was working in the Cretaceous limestone on the McFall property at the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas and discovered a pristine human footprint intruded by a dinosaur footprint. This discovery was made in the vicinity of McFall I and II Sites where the Creation Evidence Museum team has excavated since the Spring of 1982. The eleven-inch human footprint matches seven other such footprints of the same dimensions in the %u201CSir George Series,%u201D named in honor of His Excellency Governor General Ratu Sir George Cacobau of Fiji.[2]

Scientific Verification of Footprint Authenticity:
The fossil was transported to a professional laboratory where 800 X-rays were performed in a CT Scan procedure. Laboratory technicians verified compression and distribution features clearly seen in both prints, human and dinosaur. This removes any possibility that the prints were carved or altered.