Tracks of a Running Bipedal Baby Brontosaur? Baby Sauropod Footprints Discovered in Colorado
ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2010) — Staff at the Morrison Natural History Museum have again discovered infant dinosaur footprints in the foothills west of Denver, Colorado, near the town of Morrison. Dating from the Late Jurassic, some 148 million years ago, these tracks were made before the Rocky Mountains rose, when Morrison was a broad savanna full of dinosaurs.
Recently discovered baby sauropod hind track from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, Morrison, Colorado, USA. (Credit: Copyright 2010, Morrison Museum of Natural History (MNHM) / Matthew T. Mossbrucker)
The fossil tracks represent infant sauropods, according to discoverer Matthew Mossbrucker, the museum's director. Sauropods are giant, herbivorous long-necked dinosaurs, sometimes known as "brontosaurs." The sauropod Apatosaurus was first discovered in Morrison in 1877. As long as three school buses parked end to end, and weighing as much as eight Asian elephants combined, Apatosaurus is the largest dinosaur found in the Denver metro area.
Information regarding the new tracks will be presented Nov. 1 at the 2010 Geologic Society of America Annual Meeting & Exposition in Denver.
In 1877, Arthur Lakes uncovered the very first apatosaurs -- three skeletons of the 30-ton giant that was named Apatosaurus ajax. Later discoveries in Wyoming and Utah proved that sauropods were among the dominant giant herbivores in the Late Jurassic.
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