Dinosaurs Making Tracks on Skye

Finding dinosaur tracks has become somewhat commonplace (saddle up or take a hike at Prehistoric Trailways National Monument in New Mexico, for instance), but they're found in several parts of the world. Some dinosaur footprints are unremarkable, like they're going to and from the general store for supplies or something. Others, however, look like they're fleeing something.

Image credit: Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management

Dinosaur tracks in Lake Quarry, Australia, had paleontologists giving weird cognations that the critters were fleeing a predator, but that does not hold up under examination. Same kind of thing happens with the dinosaur tracks on the Isle of Skye — relevant information is ignored, facts are pushed into an evolutionary worldview, and the best explanation of the Genesis Flood is rejected out of hand. Sorry, but uniformitarianism fails again. The Earth is far younger than you and Papa Darwin want it to be.

On Scotland’s Isle of Skye, researchers have discovered hundreds of dinosaur tracks. Based on the immense size of these tracks (the largest was 2.3 feet [70 centimeters] across), researchers determined that these tracks belonged to a species of sauropod dinosaur likely 50 feet (15 meters) long and weighing 15–20 tons. According to the researchers’ report in The Scottish Journal of Geology, the tracks have been “identified as dinosaur prints based on their consistent size [25–35 cm for the front foot print and 50–70 cm for the rear foot print], preservation of fine features, such as digits and claw marks, and their arrangement in orderly trackways.” The vast majority of tracks are sauropod tracks, and both front (manus) and rear (pes) footprints are commonly found. While individual trackways are orderly the tracks aren’t laid out in a uniform manner but instead show evidence of traversing over each other. While the average depth of the individual tracks is not given in the paper, it appears from scale that they are between 10–20 cm deep. Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist with the University of Edinburgh, says of these tracks, "There were clearly lots of sauropods moving all around this lagoon. They were at home there, they were thriving there. Looking at the chaotic jumble of tracks, it looks like a dance floor, like a dinosaur disco.” Since the 1970s it has been believed that sauropods were land-dwellers; however, because these tracks are interpreted as having been laid down in a shallow lagoon, the sauropod story is again changing to include some time spent splashing about in the water.

You can read the entire article by clicking on "Do Dinosaur Footprint Fossils Indicate Sauropods Splashed in Water?" Also, I recommend "Hundreds of Dino Tracks Found Eroding at Scottish Beach". Now if you'll excuse me, my Scottish heritage is urging me to listen to the pipes...