Glen Rose Formation
The Glen Rose Formation, located in the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas, is a fossil bearing bed dating from the Aptian-Albian boundary of the early-Cretaceous. The Glen Rose Trackway is located at the base of the formation, which covers 1,500 acres (6.1 km2). It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1969.
Fossils
Fossils in the formation include fossilized ammonites, worm tubes, internal molds of snails, bivalves, scallops, urchins, clams, and small crocodile relatives like Pachycheilosuchus. The fossil remains of Acrocanthosaurus have been discovered there as well.
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Glen Rose Trackway
The trackway is composed of two different types of fossilized footprints. The first belong to sauropods of 30 to 50 feet in length, probably Pleurocoelus. Discovered in 1930 by Barnum Brown and Roland T. Bird, they were the first sauropod footprints ever found. Some are as large as three feet across.
The second set of footprints are 15 to 25 inches (640 mm) long and are those of three-toed carnosaurs approximately 20 to 30 feet (9.1 m) in length. The sharp-clawed theropods are most likely acrocanthosaurs.
The prints are thought to have been preserved originally in a tidal flat or a lagoon, pressed into limestone-rich mud by sauropods on a migration and theropods on a hunting mission.
Parts of the tracks are obscured at times of the year by the Paluxy River portion of the Brazos River.
Human footprint controversy
Outside Dinosaur Valley State Park, in the limestone deposits along the Paluxy River, "twin sets" of tracks were found. Originally discovered in the early 1900s, starting in the 1960s and 1970s creationists alleged that one set of tracks were human (the "Glen Rose Man") and other dinosaurs to support their "flaws" in evolutionary theory.[1] However, as biologist Massimo Pigliucci noted, geologists in the 1980s "clearly demonstrated that no human being left those prints," but rather "they were in fact metatarsal dinosaur tracks, together with a few pure and simple fakes."[2] Although this is still the subject of some controvery.
See also
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations
References
- ^ John D. Morris. The Pauluxy River Tracks. Institute for Creation Research, 2007.
- ^ Massimo Pigliucci Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science (Sinauer, 2002, p. 246): ISBN 0878936599
