Tracking down dinosaur ancestors

What did life look like more than 200 million years ago? Ichnologist and paleontologist Hendrik Klein travels to faraway countries to track down dinosaurs and their ancestors. Follow his latest expedition to Morocco on ResearchGate. ResearchGate: What made you want to follow the tracks of dinosaurs? Hendrik Klein: I was always interested in tracks because unlike skeletons, tracks always tell you something about their producers and their behavior. From a distinct trackway, a complete sequence of pes and manus - foot and hand - imprints, you can see exactly how the animal moved. You can't always get that from just the bones. Bones need to be puzzled together, and finally require some reconstruction. This is often a matter of interpretation. What we want to do is match skeletons and trackways, a challenging task, and a tough part of ichnologists' work. RG: I suppose you couldn't just follow the trackway to the end and finally find a skeleton? Klein: That would be great! But no, tracks are only discovered in sites where there are no skeletons and vice versa. For one, that's because their fossilization process is very different. Bones only become fossils if they're embedded quickly. Sediment needs to cover the carcasses so that they're safe from scavengers and other destructive influences. These are bad conditions for tracks. Tracks need to dry in the sun to settle and fossilize. You can see this when you take a walk along a lakeside where an animal has left its imprints...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news