Impronta di Anchilosauro nella Morrison Formation del Colorado

Sicuramente non è la prima impronta di Anchilosauro tovata nel mondo, come annunciato nell’articolo, tuttavia essendo esse molto rare la scoperta è da ritenersi sicuramente molto significativa.

Articolo tratto da KJTC8.COM

Exclusive: KJCT hunts for dinosaur tracks

Posted: June 2, 2008 12:19 AM

Updated: June 2, 2008 05:45 PM

 

CACTUS PARK (KJCT)- A Colorado high school teacher says he discovered the first known Ankylosaur dinosaur footprint in the world near Grand Junction about a week ago.

This weekend he headed back to Cactus Park to look for more dinosaur tracks and bones. KJCT News 8’s Sara Goldenberg joined him on a dinosaur expedition.

 ”It’s about 150 millions years old… the only one in the world.”

 The five-toed Ankylosaur dinosaur track measures nine inches long and 12 inches wide– larger than any known Jurassic foot skeletons.

Kent Hups, a science teacher at Manuel High School and a paleontologist, discovered the track in Cactus Park.

 ”It’s fun to find something really unique, really fascinating, really fantastic to science, because it motivates you and it motivates the other scientists around to really start looking,” he said. 

 Ankylosaurs were armored dinosaurs related to Stegosaurs. Hups says it’s the only known track of it’s kind in the world, and it can help tell us what these dinosaurs look like.

 ”When you start realizing that there’s big Ankylosaurs walking around in the Jurassic, it is fun to go look again. It is fun to go look at bones and go see if you can find remains of these animals,” Hups said.

 He found the dinosaur track in a sandstone rock. Hups says he noticed unusual holes in the rock, and when he flipped it over, he found the track.

 ”I started jumping up and down, and yelled at my friend Mike, and he came over and was like, ‘What?’ I was like, we got something really good here.”

 Hups says the Morrison Formation is one of the most well-known locations in the world for dinosaur discoveries. And the geology of the area in Western Colorado exposes the fossils.

 ”I think it’s really good for looking for dinosaurs in this area because things are exposed and you’re able to see,” he said.

 He says this huge find means they can start looking for bigger Ankylosaur tracks out here. He says he has a permit especially for that from the Bureau of Land Management.

“It’s like digging for buried treasure. You get a chance to find things, and when you find a dinosaur bone and you find a track like we found, you realize you’re the first person in the history of the world to see it. And it is like digging up treasure,” Hups said.

 The rare dinosaur track will go to the BLM. Three replicas were made, and soon you can see a copy for yourself at the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita.

LINKS:

1 – VIDEO by KJBT8.com