Tracking Dinosaurs A New Look at an Ancient World

About this book

Tracking Dinosaurs is the first non-technical, popular science book on dinosaur footprints and what they reveal about dinosaurs and their habitats. Billions of dinosaur tracks have been found in recent years and through careful examination of these prehistoric clues, dinosaur trackers have discovered much about how and where dinosaurs lived. This book deals with this landslide of new information that has accumulated in recent decades, demonstrating that fossil footprints are neither rare nor insignificant as previously supposed. A complete guide to dinosaur tracking, the book begins with a discussion of the meaning of tracks, how tracks provide information about dinosaur locomotion, behaviour, ecology and environmental impact. The accessible writing style and numerous illustrations, including eight pages of colour photographs, make this book appropriate for all people with a general interest in science and natural history.

Contents

Preface; 1. Track facts: what, where, and when; 2. The meaning of tracks; 3. Understanding track preservation; 4. Discovery and documentation; 5. Classification: a field guide to dinosaur tracks; 6. Individual behaviour; 7. Social behaviour; 8. Ancient ecology; 9. Evolution; 10. Dinosaur tracks and ancient environments; 11. Trampled underfoot; 12. Megatracksites: a new era in tracking; 13. Myths and misconceptions; 14. The dinosaur trackers; 15. Epilogue: Trail to the twenty-first century; Appendix A. Where to visit dinosaur tracksites; Appendix B. Glossary; Notes; Index.

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