- #1
Thread Owner
Found years ago in Western Massachusetts. It is 7" long at the longest point. Ideas?
Last edited:
What species of dinosaur was this?
- Thread starter smokeythecat
- Start date
DizzyDigger
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2012
- Messages
- 6,774
- Reaction score
- 14,463
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Concrete, WA
- Detector(s) used
- Nokta FoRs Gold, a Gold Cube, 2 Keene Sluices and Lord only knows how many pans....not to mention a load of other gear my wife still doesn't know about!
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
No idea what kind of dinosaur, but it's a very cool find. My first thought after
seeing the pic was Wylie Coyote was squashed in it's footprint...
seeing the pic was Wylie Coyote was squashed in it's footprint...
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2019
- Messages
- 6,164
- Reaction score
- 19,845
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Surrey, UK
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
What a terrific (ichno)fossil. Did you find it personally?
Three-toed footprints like that are usually assigned to the ichnogenus “Grallator”. They typically range up to about 8 inches and, although the imprints exhibit only three toes, the trackmakers were probably four- or five-toed bipedal theropod dinosaurs of various species.
The Grallator ichnogenus is used in situations where the actual dinosaur genus is not known but aspects of its size, anatomy and locomotion can be inferred from the tracks it made. The ichnogenus is then further divided into ichnospecies from observed characteristics of the prints.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grallator
In America, many of them are believed to have been made by small theropods such as Coelophysis based on bone fossil remains often found in association but those tracks don’t often get as long as 7 inches and are characteristically narrow (the width being around 40% of the length). Larger tracks with greater width (where the width is around 65% of the length) are often attributed to the ichnogenus Eubrontes, but as juveniles unless the prints are very large.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubrontes
Possible candidates for the actual genus responsible for Eubrontes prints include Teratosaurus (strictly speaking not a true dinosaur), Podokesaurus and Dilophosaurus although no remains of the latter have been found in association with such tracks.
Three-toed footprints like that are usually assigned to the ichnogenus “Grallator”. They typically range up to about 8 inches and, although the imprints exhibit only three toes, the trackmakers were probably four- or five-toed bipedal theropod dinosaurs of various species.
The Grallator ichnogenus is used in situations where the actual dinosaur genus is not known but aspects of its size, anatomy and locomotion can be inferred from the tracks it made. The ichnogenus is then further divided into ichnospecies from observed characteristics of the prints.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grallator
In America, many of them are believed to have been made by small theropods such as Coelophysis based on bone fossil remains often found in association but those tracks don’t often get as long as 7 inches and are characteristically narrow (the width being around 40% of the length). Larger tracks with greater width (where the width is around 65% of the length) are often attributed to the ichnogenus Eubrontes, but as juveniles unless the prints are very large.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eubrontes
Possible candidates for the actual genus responsible for Eubrontes prints include Teratosaurus (strictly speaking not a true dinosaur), Podokesaurus and Dilophosaurus although no remains of the latter have been found in association with such tracks.
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2019
- Messages
- 6,164
- Reaction score
- 19,845
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Surrey, UK
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Ah... OK.
I would think the seller or whoever prepped it has enhanced the print with powdered graphite or something similar. That's commonly done to help the print to stand out from the matrix and doesn't detract from its collector desirability.
Top Member Reactions
-
2323 -
1519 -
1047 -
1045 -
928 -
865 -
850 -
829 -
819 -
737 -
618 -
587 -
517 -
508 -
500
