Fossil Footprints Show Dinosaurs Enjoyed Long Walks on the Beach - http://clapway.com/2015/08/16/fossil-footprints-dinosaurs-walks-101/

Two sets of footprints in the sand of a beach in Germany have been found to belong to two dinosaurs from over 142 million years ago. The findings may reveal that these specific dinosaurs, as well as perhaps many others, were actually social creatures.

Two Theropod Dinosaurs Left Footprints on A German Beach

Two dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago enjoyed eating meat and long walks on the beach in Münchehagen, Germany according to the findings of biologist Pernille Venø Troelsen of the University of Southern Denmark.

The biologist presented his findings in July at the annual meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists, which included pictures of the nearly 50 fossilized footprints that belonged to a large dinosaur and a smaller one, both believed to be theropods. The larger one was around 1.6 meters at its hip, while the smaller stood around 1.1 meters at the hip.

Troelsen noted that the speeds of the creatures, which are similar to velociraptors, were well below the speeds of up to 40 kilometers an hour that they are known to have been able to reach. Paleontologists in Opole, Poland listened to the biologist’s interpretation of the extinct hunters as they strolled along the beach at between 6 to 10 kilometers an hour, possibly looking for food, but in no hurry to find their dinners.

50 Footprints of Dinosaurs Tracked to Reveal Their Walking Path, Gait

The 50 footprints had been found in the Bückeberg formation, a popular place for dinosaurs obviously as dinosaur footprints and tracks have been found there for over 2 centuries. These particular tracks had been uncovered in an excavation between 2009 and 2011.

The tracks not only revealed the walking path of the two dinos, but also the gait. With the larger one, an average speed of around 6 kilometers was recorded. But for the smaller dinosaur, the poor thing had to keep up by walking a pace of around 10 kilometers.

What does this reveal, exactly? Well, for starters, Troelsen’s perspective as a biologist is uniquely different than how geologists and paleontologists may interpret the results. Troelsen believes the animals were of the carnivorous species Megalosauripus that may have been related, such as a parent and its offspring.

The peculiar gait of the little one’s footprints reveal that it had crossed its legs several times on the walk. Troelsen says it can be either the tiny dino had lost its balance in the sand or thanks to a gust of wind or maybe it was in a hurry to keep up with the bigger one. Think of it as a child tagging along behind its parent, who has considerably slowed their pace to help out the young one.

Footprints Reveal Dinosaurs Weren’t Always So Feared, They Did Have Friends

If the biologist’s theories are true, it points to dinosaurs being much more social than what we usually give them credit for.

More studies have shown that dinosaurs have hunted together, taken care of their offspring, as well as even had a similar set of social rules regarding our concept of babysitting.

Though Troelsen was careful to explain that these tracks cannot be definitively analyzed as being created by two dinosaurs that roamed together. The area was a high traffic spot for dinosaurs as many footprints have been found.

But the coincidence of two sets of footprints from the same species of dinosaurs along the exact same path at different times doesn’t seem as plausible as dinos hanging out together and possibly being more than just fearsome creatures.

Fossil Footprints Show Dinosaurs Enjoyed Long Walks on the Beach

What the oldest North American footprints tell us about our path. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/24/british-columbia-oldest-footprints-in-north-america-belonged-to-family-on-calvert-island-356/

The oldest footprints in North America have been discovered on Calvert Island in British Columbia, Canada. The amazing archaeological discovery features 12 footprints that indicate at least three separate individuals, possibly living as a family group.

Calvert Island’s First Family Found in the Oldest Footprints in North America

On a small island off the coast of British Columbia, a family of two adults and one child huddled around a fire. They circled around the stone-ringed fire pit, warming their hands and faces with the heat coming from their tiny bonfire as their footprints melted into the soft clay under their feet.

13,000 years later, archaeologists have uncovered those very footprints in the soft clay. The footprints were brushed over with black sand, but still so well preserved, it is almost shocking to believe the family had gathered thousands of years ago. Though the family has long since disappeared, they may have just provided archaeologists with evidence of the earliest humans in North America.

Two digs, 12 footprints and 13,200 years of history on Calvert Island

Calvert Island is a small island of British Columbia, situated approximately 500 km north of Vancouver and surrounded by the icy waters of the Pacific Coast. The only way to access the island is via boat, which is how a team of archaeologists from the University of Victoria came to the island in 2014.

The team, led by Duncan McLaren and Daryl Fedje, were looking for evidence of human settlement in North America after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, which occurred 20,000 years ago. Though the region would have been completely underwater until an estimated 14,000 years ago, the researchers were lucky to find a single footprint near the shore. With support from the Hakai Institute, the team embarked on a second archaeological dig at the same site a few months later.

On the second dig, the archaeologists unearthed the stone-ringed fire pit surrounded by a total of 12 footprints. Radiocarbon dating determined the family group had their bonfire around 13,200 years ago.

The footprints are so defined that archaeologists could identify the toes and even the foot arches in the prints, which was the evidence needed to reveal how many members were in the family.

Oldest footprints reveal clues to North America’s first inhabitants

The footprints in the soft clay have provided much more than an idea of when the first inhabitants roamed around North America’s West Coast. They also support a new theory that the first inhabitants likely migrated to the continent from Alaska by boat.

Most theories argue that the first coastal settlements were founded by humans traveling inland by foot. Although not yet published in a peer-reviewed publication, some researchers believe these findings may support the theory of sea-based travel.

Finding more evidence will prove challenging as the Pacific Coast would have now covered former coastal settlements with its icy waters, if such settlements even existed. But for now, the archaeologists have enough proof to show that human migration happened along the North American coastline as early as 6,000 years after the end of the Ice Age thanks to the footprints in the sand.

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British Columbia: Oldest Footprints in North America Belonged to Family on Calvert Island