They haven't honed it down to a species level of identification, but they narrowed it down impressively, considering all they had to go on were footprints. Like other dino trackways in the world, these newly found tracks provide glimpses of what dinosaurs were doing, rather than how they were put together. "When you get a trackway like this you get a chance to do research at the next level -- behavior," said Matthew Carrano, curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The parallel tracks of different-aged dinosaurs offer insight into social groups since they suggest the animals were roaming in large herds. They even shed some light on parenting behaviors, he said, showing that smaller sauropods walked alongside the big dinos, keeping up with quicker, shorter steps. "These trackways are distinctive because they provide the most evocative window to date into Yemen's dinosaurian evolutionary history: an ornithopod together with a beautiful example of sauropod herding behavior," said Stevens.The discovery also reinforces the idea that there are probably lots of undiscovered dinosaur fossils on the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, Stevens says she is planning to investigate more trackways near the first site with her colleagues Schulp and Mohammed Al-Wosabi of Sana'a University, Sana'a, in the Republic of Yemen. "It's a place where future research could be productive," agreed Carrano. Related Links: Discovery News blog: Earth Impacts |
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