tooting my own horn... pterosaur tracks

[jpc]

Here is something from last week's virtual SVP conference... my colleague and I made the news, and not for our use of banned words.

 

https://www.livescience.com/pterosaurs-walked-in-rain.html?fbclid=IwAR0fn9ovHHOHdCcuc0P0tdYJNi0E7D_KULlPv7ajP2KngC-Yc4LMHaJ3asg

[Troodon]

Very very cool nice work.  Congrat on the find.  Were the slabs found loose and on the ground or were cutting tools required?  Much prepping needed?

[fossilsonwheels]

I would say that is worthy of tooting your horn lol  Very cool stuff

[Fossildude19]

Way to go, JP.  

[digit]

Very cool, indeed!

 

Can you share some images of individual slabs?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[jpc]

The first one were found as loose slabs at the base of the cliff.  With a little detective work, I was able to find what layer they were coming form... the bottom one, of course.  The pointy end of the rock hammer in the cliffside photo shows the source layer.  We could only extract about a foot into the cliff so we got this long slab with very little depth.  Some of those piece near the backpack have prints in them.  

 

 

Here is a slab with both footprints and one handprint and lots of raindrops.  (manus is the 'double-comma' to the left of the image of a dino track on the ruler).  

 

[jpc]

I tried to add another photo but it tells me I am only allowed 3.95 mb.  I think I have to wait til someone else comments.... or do I need to downsize the above pix?

 

 

[JohnJ]

Refresh your browser and upload more.

 

[jpc]

refreshed... (thanks, John)

 

 

 

It is hard to see the tracks.  The only place I could set these out (13 feet =4 meters long) was in a classroom with overhead lighting.  I used low angle lighting to actually see the tracks myself to draw them in in the second photo.  Red is pes prints, orange is possible pes prints, blue is manus prints, purple is possible manus prints.  (Not all prints are obvious).  Yellow is areas with raindrops.  Green is areas where the footprint layer is either missing or buried (not visible).   

 

As for preerpping... toothbrush and water.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I love these little glimpses into a 'day' in the past. 

The sea creating ripple marks, then rain and the pterosaurs wandering the beach seeing what they could find. 

It was a Tuesday, i think. 

[Ancient Bones]

I find this SO interesting , thank you and congrats.

[Troodon]

Thanks for the follow-up.  So it did take some elbow grease but you have to like the prepping.   Are you planning to work the site for additional finds or are you all finished.  Plans for the tracks?  

[jcbshark]

Awesome find!!! 

[Top Trilo]

Wow that’s awesome. It’s so cool how you can see what they were doing when they were alive, what the weather was like, and some people can tell what day of the week it is 

I’d have to agree with Tuesday

[jpc]

2 hours ago, Troodon said:

Thanks for the follow-up.  So it did take some elbow grease but you have to like the prepping.   Are you planning to work the site for additional finds or are you all finished.  Plans for the tracks?  

Not much elbow grease, there was just a wee bit of decomposed shale in between the lower sandstone imprints and the upper shale infills.  No more plans... the layer is under that cliff in the photo.  Not going to trash the cliff.  There was an area to the left of the photo above where the cliff had fallen so we were aiming to get a 6 by 3 foot (at least) section.  Turns out the tracks did NOT continue into that area.  The tracks are here at the Tate Museum forever.  I hope to get them on display someday.  

[Pemphix]

 

Very nice find !

Congrats !

[minnbuckeye]

15 hours ago, jpc said:

The only place I could set these out (13 feet =4 meters long) was in a classroom

What about Tate Museum!!!! The combo of pre and post raindrops with the prints is unbelievable. Then to see where you pulled the pieces from!!!

 

 Mike

[jeannie55]

I concur with our fellow members. When you have work worthy of tooting, you owe it to yourself and those before and after you to toot away. 

[jpc]

Thanks for the kind words, folks.  I have worked with enough people who toot their own horns as they pedal down the middle of the street that it makes them look like an idiot. I do so with hesitation.  But , yeah, a cool project. 

[digit]

Think of it less as horn-tootage than giving us the inside track on interesting developments and discoveries.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[LabRatKing]

36 minutes ago, digit said:

Think of it less as horn-tootage than giving us the inside track on interesting developments and discoveries.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Inside track...I see what you did there...

 

 

Grats on a very cool find JPC!

[Misha]

Wow, that is super cool! I don't know how I didn't see this earlier

Congratulations

[Randyw]

Great discovery! And that is amazing! Congratulations and hats off to you!

[FossilNerd]

Nice discovery JP! Congrats!

 

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing this. Great story and awesome fossil!