Who's Leading Who

[goldenraven]

Some time ago, my brother and I was out looking for arrow heads and came out on this ravine. In the bottom of the ravine was a clay layer that had just been exposed by the spring rain. We went down to check it out and found a fair amount of dinosaur tracks through out the clay layer. As you can see, we also came upon a different track mixed in with the dino tracks. There were about six human tracks that came in and out of the clay layer. The human prints were made with some sort of sandle or covering and the size is very close to my brothers size. How old would you think these tracks are??

[jpc]

Howdy-

Your dino tracks look pretty good, at least the third photo, but your human track looks like an elongated depression. There's no distinct heel, arch, ball or toes. There's very little human about it. Except that it is the same size as your boot. I am pretty skeptical of a lot of trac claims. The best way to know you have tracks and not just a random divot is if there is a trackway… that is, a series of tracks where the critter was walking. Of course, if you do indeed have dino tracks and human track together, this would be very important scientifically. Don't worry, you're not the first to make the claim. All others have been shown to not be human tracks. Much to the dismay of many a creationist.

As for the age, it looks like your tracks might be in some Triassic or Jurassic rocks. I’m not too familiar with Utah geology, but that stuff looks a lot like parts of the Triassic of Wyoming, where I am quite familiar with the rocks.

Sorry to pop your balloon.

[Nandomas]

Some time ago, my brother and I was out looking for arrow heads and came out on this ravine. In the bottom of the ravine was a clay layer that had just been exposed by the spring rain. We went down to check it out and found a fair amount of dinosaur tracks through out the clay layer. As you can see, we also came upon a different track mixed in with the dino tracks. There were about six human tracks that came in and out of the clay layer. The human prints were made with some sort of sandle or covering and the size is very close to my brothers size. How old would you think these tracks are??

I don't know about the first photo, but the second and the third are dinosaur tracks I guess from Jurassic. Contact the dino track specialist Andrew RC. Milner at The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm in St. George Utah. If you are the first to discover the site, Andrew will give you the full credit for the discovery

[goldenraven]

Thank you for the input so far. The human print that I have shown is only 1 of about 6. They come on the clay layer and go off. Some are too worn to see well and others are only half a print because they go off the layer. The prints do form a track that runs about 10' on and off the clay layer. They could still be just natural marking, but who knows??? It still is fun to think that they are real. Donald Stewart

[Auspex]

What are the size of the "dino" tracks? And, is the clay layer lithified, or soft?

[JohnJ]

Thank you for the input so far. The human print that I have shown is only 1 of about 6. They come on the clay layer and go off. Some are too worn to see well and others are only half a print because they go off the layer. The prints do form a track that runs about 10' on and off the clay layer. They could still be just natural marking, but who knows??? It still is fun to think that they are real. Donald Stewart

Dramatic presumptions are usually risky; just do some reading in the Fossil ID forum for many examples. When I track animals these days and come across unusual marks, I try to figure out how that animal made the marks. Tracks are subject to a lot of deformation, so interpretation of ancient marks should be done with caution. Here is a good article about some Texas tracks.

[dhk]

Since we can not usually identify the type of dino that made a track, we associate and group types of tracks by size and shape and name them in these groups. The extended middle toe and smaller side toes are grouped as Grallator tracks. Grallator tracks were made by a theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs such as Coelophysis. The track I am seeing (and I would like better pics with a size referance) is in this category if it is between 5 to 10 inches from tip of middle to heal. Can you see well developed claw immpressions on the toes? How deep is the immpression? How far are the tracks apart from each other? These are what we need to know to id a track.

As for the human tracks??? I need to see well defined toes, heal and arch before I would even consider it.

[lordpiney]

there seems to be alot of strange stuff in utah. did you find any arrowheads?