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Potential Hadrosaur Tracks


uller6

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I was taking a walk yesterday afternoon next to the Anacostia river in PG county (Maryland), and looked down to see this very interesting rock.  Unfortunately I wasn't out looking for anything in particular, so I didn't bring a ruler to measure the tracks.  I think these might be hadrosaur tracks to my very inexperienced eye?  There have been other tracks discovered in this general area, notably the large assemblage of late Cretaceous tracks discovered outside NASA a few years ago, and hadrosaurs have been discovered from this general area/time period.  Can anyone else confirm my suspicions?

Tracks1.jpg

Tracks2.jpg

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Hello Uller6 and welcome to the forum.

Hard to say for sure in that state of erosion, but to me it looks good, and context makes it plausible.

A rock to come back to.

best regards,

J

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I think they look pretty convincing. 

Hope the experts agree. :footprint1:

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I agree with them possibly being dinosaur tracks, but not sure you can say much more about who made them.

Were there any other exposures nearby?

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Thanks for the quick replies everyone!  I'm attaching another picture here with the tracks hilighted in blue on the image and a comparison to hadrosaur tracks from the literature.  

 

Fossildude19: I didn't see any other exposures in the area unfortunately, this rock was sitting all alone and likely washed down from a recent flood.

38066249_ScreenShot2022-05-25at10_26_29AM.png

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The area is very well known for tracks but not convinced thats what you have.  My vote is weathering, edges too sharp.  Tracks are not described to a species but to a ichnotaxon that describes its shape.

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I'm also not convinced that these are footprints. They look a lot like it, but don't have the three-dimensional structure that I'd expect to see...

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Thanks everyone for your responses!  Even if these aren't real (or are too weathered for definitive ID), I've got the itch now, so I'll find some time to go back and take a longer look around the same area.

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Try to determine the geologic formation of that rock.  It might exclude any possibility of tracks....

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Looks like metamorphic rip rap to me. It's brethren on the beach are. What looks like bedding is, but it's schist I think. Not positive; just giving an opinion.

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I tend towards footprint skepticism.  If they are not obvious, they are not tracks.  I have been convinced otherwise in some situations.    

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I'm in the differential weathering camp.

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Thanks everyone!  I went back and looked again, now on a cloudy day.  I think it's just weathering and I have an active imagination...

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8 minutes ago, uller6 said:

Thanks everyone!  I went back and looked again, now on a cloudy day.  I think it's just weathering and I have an active imagination...

 

A great thing to have when hunting for fossils - just as long as you're aware of it and don't just go by it blindly :BigSmile:

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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