“Dinosaur Dance Floor” Discovered on Utah-Arizona State Line

By Alexander Toldt
17:00, October 22nd 2008
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“Dinosaur Dance Floor” Discovered on Utah-Arizona State Line

Over 1000 of dinosaur footprints were discovered at a site in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument on the state line between Arizona and Utah. The discovery belongs to geologists at the University of Utah.

Given the number of footprints the geologists have discovered, the site on the border between the two states was nicknamed "a dinosaur dance floor." The discovery was made public on Monday by the university in a press release.

"Get out there and try stepping in their footsteps, and you feel like you are playing the game 'Dance Dance Revolution' that teenagers dance on," geology professor Marjorie Chan said.

The study which focuses on dinosaurs and the site where the numerous tracks were discovered was published in the journal Palaios.

The “dinosaur dance floor” stretches over more than three quarters of an acre and geologists discovered 12 tracks per square yard on average. The dinosaurs which left those tracks lived approximately 190 million years ago.

"This kind of reminded me of that - a dinosaur dance floor - because there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks," Palaios.

Geologists still don’t know what was going on in that place 190 million years ago, but it certainly was a “place that attracted a crowd,” said geologist Marjorie Chan who took part in the study about the site.

"All these footprints at a watering hole might tell us something about the social life of the dinosaurs," said Marjorie Chan of the University of Utah.

Although geologists differentiated four kinds of tracks, they do not know what species of Jurassic dinosaurs were those who left them. Some of the footprints measure 16 inches across and have three toes and a heel. Scientist can’t tell the species of a dinosaur only by seeing its footprints. They need to have some bones as evidence to decide the species, but the tracks can help them understand some of the creature's habits.



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