Page 10 - Winter 2012 magazine-1
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A Matter of Time Octopodichnus Tracks
by Nick Saines Photo by Lynn Anderson
Nick Saines with Grallator Tracks
Photo by Steve Rowland
Grallator Tracks Photo by Steve Rowland
Discovery Reflections
In August, 2011, I provided geology training to
Bureau of Land Management volunteers. I mentioned
that it was just a matter of time before we found
dinosaur tracks at Red Rock Canyon, expecting to
find them below the Aztec Sandstone in the Kayenta- Red Rock Canyon
Moenave Formation. After the class, BLM volunteer
Gary Smith came up to me and said he and some Geology History Rewritten
fellow hikers may have already found some in the
Aztec Sandstone. A few weeks later we went to check The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, which is comprised
Gary’s find. On the way there, we found a beautiful of lithified sand dunes, was formed in a hot and dry
single dinosaur footprint and a small animal trackway. desert environment of deposition. The tracks of
Seven hundred seventy feet away, Smith, Lynn small bipedal (two-footed) therapod (meat-eating)
Nicholson, and Jeff Mishlove did indeed find dino- dinosaurs have been found in the Aztec Sandstone
saur footprints. Paleontologist Professor Steve Row- Inc. at Red Rock Canyon. Dinosaur tracks have also
land of the Geoscience Department at the University been found in the Aztec Sandstone in California,
of Nevada, Las Vegas, identified the Grallator foot- and in the Navajo Sandstone of Utah and Arizona.
prints and the Octopodichnus trackway. Grallator
The Navajo Sandstone is the same age as the Aztec
footprints were made by small bipedal (two-footed)
Sandstone. Petrified wood occurs in the Triassic
therapod meat-eating dinosaurs. The Octopodichnus
Chinle Formation underlying the Aztec Sandstone.
tracks were made by a small arachnid such as a
Geologists believe that there is a possibility that
tarantula or scorpion. With Steve Rowland’s confir-
tracks, bones, and other fossils, including those of
mation and identification, the BLM was informed and
dinosaurs, could be found in Mesozoic rocks below
they sent a verification team, including BLM regional
paleontologists Scott Foss and Brent Breithaupt. The and above the Aztec Sandstone. Dinosaur fossils
tracks were officially verified and a team is now have been found in Cretaceous rocks above the
working on the dinosaur exhibit which is expected to Aztec Sandstone in the Valley of Fire, a state park
open in the Visitors Center in late January, 2012. northeast of Las Vegas.
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