Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe / Edition 2

by Martin Lockley, Christian Meyer

Overview

The long and distinguished tradition of tracking dinosaurs and other extinct animals in Europe dates back to the 1830s. Yet this venerable tradition of scientific activity cannot compare in magnitude and scope with the unprecedented spate of discovery and documentation of the last few years. Now, following on the heels of his Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of the Western United States, Martin Lockley teams up with Christian Meyer to present an up to date synthesis of the recent findings in the field of European fossil footprints. Drawing extensively on their own research results from studies in Britain, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere, the authors create a dynamic picture of mammal, reptile, bird, and amphibian "track-makers" throughout more than 300 million years of vertebrate evolution, placed in the context of Europe's changing ancient environments.

Beginning with an introduction to tracking and a history of the European tracking tradition, Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe then charts a broad path of evolutionary proliferation from the proto-dinosaurs of the Early Triassic period to the dinosaurs' decline and disappearance in the Upper Cretaceous. The survey continues into the age of mammals and birds, ending with the cave art of our Paleolithic ancestors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231107105
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/07/2000
Edition description:	second edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Martin Lockley is professor of geology and director of the Dinosaur Trackers Research Group at the University of Colorado, Denver, and is the author of five books on fossil footprints and several hundred scientific articles on diverse subjects in paleontology.

Christian Meyer is currently an invited professor at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Tracking
The Importance of Fossil Footprints
How to Study Ancient Tracks
Individual Behavior
Where to Go Tracking
Naming Footprints
Who Dun It? Identifying Ancient Trackmakers
Time and Time Again
Collecting Footprint Data
Social Behavior
Using Trackways to Read Ancient Ecology: The Ichnofacies Concept
Tracks and Bones: Two Pieces of an Incomplete Puzzle
The Mysteries of Track Preservation
2. The Tradition of Tracking Dinosaurs in Europe
Earliest Discoveries
The Oldest European Trackmakers:
I: Dragging Through the Devonian
II: Cruising in the Carboniferous
Of Deserts and Swamps
Rotligiendes: Permian Trackway Heaven
The German Summit Conference
Stuck in the Mud: The Complete Trace of a Hammerhead Amphibian
The First Pareiasaur Trackway
Pangean Globetrotters
3. Dawn of the Mesozoic: The Early and Middle Triassic
The Story of Chirotherium: The Dawn of the Archosaurs
Sex in the Footprint Bed
Tracks as Keys to Evolution and Locomotion
Lizard ancestors and Proto-mammals with Hairy Feet
The World's Oldest Dinosaur Tracks: Fact, Fiction, and Controversy
Future Directions
4. The First Dinosaurs: The Late Triassic Epoch
Welsh Dinosaurs at the Jolly Sailor Pub
The March of the Prosauropods
Learning Tracking from the Bushmen: "C'est l'Afrique''
A Beautiful but Elusive Track
High-Altitude Tracks in the Swiss Alps von Huene's Little Dinosaur Track: Coelurosaurichus
Future Directions: Digging Deeper in the Late Triassic
A Once Green and Pleasant Land
5. Early Jurassic
Noah's Raven Visits Europe
France: The Le Veillon Sites
France: The Causses Region
France: Sanary sur Mer
Tracks from Swedish Coal Mines and Railroad Tunnels
Tracking Dinosaurs in the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland
Trackway Evidence for the Early Origin of Stegosaurs
The First Sauropods? Evidence from Italy
6. The Dark Ages: Middle Jurassic
Dinosaurs in the Great Deltas of Yorkshire
Glimpse of a Dinosaur from the Dark Ages
The First Iberian Sauropods
Mr. Pooley's Enigmatic Track Discovery
Dinosaur Tracks from the Western Isles
The Tip of the Ichnologic Iceberg
7. The Age of Brontosaurs: Late Jurassic
Megalosaur Tracks
Sauropods on the Rise: Germany, Iberia, and Switzerland
Baby Brontosaurs
Social Sauropods
The Swiss Megatracksite
The Dinosaur Disco: An Ancient Stomping Ground
Smaller Spoor
Turtles and Hopping Dinosaurs
Spoor of the Pterosaur
A Note on the Brontopodus Ichnofacies, and Other Carbonate Ichnofacies
The First Ankylosaur Tracks
8. The Age of Iguanodon: Early Cretaceous
Archosaurs in the Air (Pterosaurian Giants)
Europe's Early Birds
The Age of Iguanodon
Iguanodon and Conan Doyle's Lost World
La Rioja
Theropod Tracks
Sauropod Tracks
Ornithopod Tracks
More Spoor of the Pterosaur
Farther Along the Trail of the Elusive Ankylosaur
Dalmatian Dinosaurs
Arctic Dinosaurs
9. The End of the Dinosaur Trail: Upper Cretaceous
The Battle of Carenque
More Dalmatian Dinosaurs
The Last of the Brontosaurs: Tracking Titanosaurs in the High Pyrenees
The Last European Dinosaurs
10. New Horizons
The Age of Mammals and Birds
The Quiet Dawn: Paleocene-Eocene
Oligocene Act I: Tracking Ronzotherium, an Early Rhino
Oligocene Act II. An Abundance of Waterfowl
A Miocene Menagerie
Tracking Ancestors of the Cat: Miocene of Spain
Pliocene Interlude
Pleistocene: Ice Age Trackmakers
Subterranean Tracking: Hominid Ichnology
Cave Art to Forensics: The Signature of Modern Humanity

Editorial Reviews

Presents a synthesis of recent findings in the field of European fossil footprints. Traces the history of the European tracking tradition, and creates a dynamic picture of mammal, reptile, bird, and amphibian track-makers through more than 300 million years of evolution, placed in the context of Europe's changing ancient environments. Includes many b&w photos and drawings. Lockley teaches geology and directs the Dinosaur Trackers Research Group at the University of Colorado-Denver. Meyer teaches at the Geologisch- Palaeontologisches Institut Basel, Switzerland. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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