Dinosaur Valley State Park is home to world-class examples of fossilized dinosaur tracks. During the Cretaceous Age, dinosaurs left tracks in the soft mud of a shallow sea that covered central Texas 113 million years ago. Dirt and sediment covered the dried prints, which the Paluxy River slowly revealed through millennia of erosion. Today, you can view two types of tracks in the river: the three-toed tracks of theropods and the saucer-shaped tracks of sauropods.
The park located just northwest of Glen Rose, Texas, is 1,500 scenic acres set astride the Paluxy River. The land for the park was acquired from private owners in 1968 and opened to the public in 1972.
Two side-by-side tracks were noticed around 1908. At one time, some people thought this was evidence of human footprints alongside dinosaurs. Further study showed one set of tracks to be some two-legged dinosaurs. compounded by some intentional fake human prints.
The discovery of dinosaur tracks here changed the field of paleontology. Trackways show that the sauropods moved more slowly (about 2.7 miles per hour) than the speedier theropods (about 5 miles per hour). The trackways also show that the sauropods travelled in herds. Adults positioned themselves on the flanks and juveniles stayed in the middle, possibly to deter attacks from predators.
The theropod prints probably belong to the carnivorous Acrocanthosaurus (similar in appearance to Tyrannosaurus rex). It ran on two legs as it pursued its prey. Reaching up to 38 feet long, it left tracks ranging from 12 to 24 inches long and 9 to 17 inches wide.
While studying theropod tracks in the Paluxy riverbed, Roland T. Bird made his big discovery-a large sauropod track! The Paluxy prints were the first distinct sauropod tracks ever found in the world. As he searched for more he found a near-perfect trackway recording the many steps of both sauropods and theropods.
Sauropods were large, plant-eating dinosaurs. Their pillarlike legs and large feet left distinct impressions in the mud. Rounded hind footprints over a yard long with smaller, clawless horseshoe-shaped front footprints. Finding these tracks revolutionized scientific thinking about these dinosaurs. Now scientists knew sauropods walked on land rather than relying on water to support their large bodies.
The 50-ton sauropod stood 92 to 112 feet long, 20 feet high, and 6 feet wide at its shoulder. Its almost 40-foot-long, giraffe-like neck was longer than its tail! Its cheekbones were higher than those of other sauropods, with small peg teeth for grabbing food and large nostrils flaring up on top of its snout.
- Travels with Phil copyrighted by Phil Konstantin -
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Links:
tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/di...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosau...
tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/di...
tpwd.texas.gov/publications/p...
core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47225...
• Dinosaur Valley State ...
tpwd.texas.gov/publications/p...
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
texashighways.com/travel-news...
sciencemuseum.utexas.edu/site...
tpwmagazine.com/archive/2023/...
www.beg.utexas.edu/geowonders...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...
www.naturalhistorymag.com/htm...
paleo.cc/paluxy/ovrdino.htm
paleo.cc/paluxy/dvsp.htm
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You can see some of my photos of the area through this link:
travelswithphil.com/April2017...
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Photo Credits:
My Own
Google Maps
Roland T. Bird
Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept.
Longest_dinosaurs2-Wikipedia - KoprX - CC BY-SA 4.0
Apatosaurus_and_trackway-Wikipedia-Joseph Lin-CC SA 2.0
River_with_dinosaur_footprints - Wikipedia - DatraxMada - CC BY-SA 4.0
Paluxy_River_dinosaur_tracks_with_human_for_scale-Wiki-Dill Tom - CC BY 2.0.jpg
3 yr old Tommy Pendley-Langston Collection-Bureau of Economic Geo. - Univ. of Texas
Paluxy_River_trackway-Wiki-Peter L. Falkingham, Karl T. Bates, James O. Farlow-CC BY 2.5
Roland_T._Bird_(1940)-Department of Geosciences at Opus Research & Creativity at IPFW
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Video Credits:
1. My Own
2. Google Earth
3. Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept.
4. PLOS Journal-Peter L. Falkingham, Karl T. Bates, James O. Farlow - CC SA 4.0
5. Stephen Curry-Texas Road Trip - Vimeo.Com/228147285 - Cc By-Nc-Nd 3.0 Deed
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Music Credits:
Q Up Arts - Humble Bundle Space_Action_3 - Purchased License