View A "Dinosaur Dance Floor"

October 20, 2008

Around 190 million years ago, a wilderness area along the Arizona-Utah border was a sandy desert oasis. At this time, the U.S. Southwest was covered with sand dunes in an area larger than today's Sahara Desert. Wet intervals during the Early Jurassic period brought life into this desert setting and led to happening water hole gathering spots for multiple dinosaurs, suggests new research by University of Utah geologist Winston Seiler and his team.

The scientists call the newly explored southwestern site "a dinosaur dance floor."

Thousands of dinosaur tracks, averaging a dozen per square yard in places, were found at the site, as you'll soon see. The tracks reminded the geologists of a popular arcade game in which participants dance on illuminated, moving footprints.

“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,” says Marjorie Chan, professor and chair of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. “This kind of reminded me of that – a dinosaur dance floor – because there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks.”

One very cool feature of the site is that it includes dinosaur tail marks. The 2.4-inch-wide tail-drag marks – which are up to 24 feet long – represent fewer than a dozen dinosaur tail-drag sites worldwide, according to Seiler.

“Dinosaurs usually weren’t walking around with their tails dragging,” he said.

Here's the full story in pictures:

Geologist Winston Seiler with some of the dinosaur tracks he identified for his thesis as a University of Utah master's degree student. The impressions once were thought to be potholes eroded by water. But Seiler and Marjorie Chan, chair of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, published a scientific paper in the October 2008 issue of the journal Palaios identifying the abundant impressions as comprising a large dinosaur "trample surface" in northern Arizona. There are so many tracks they wryly refer to the site as "a dinosaur dance floor."
(Credit Nicole Miller)

University of Utah geologist Winston Seiler walks among hundreds of dinosaur footprints in a "trample surface" that likely was a watering hole amid desert sand dunes during the Jurassic Period 190 million years ago. The track site, which also includes some dinosaur tail-drag marks, is located in Coyote Buttes North area along the Arizona-Utah border.
(Credit: Roger Seiler)

This Eubrontes dinosaur footprint, including three toes and a heel, measures roughly 16 inches long. Dinosaur footprints are named by their shape because the species and genus of animal that made them isn't known, although Eubrontes tracks are believed to have been made by upright-walking, meat-eaters smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex. Eubrontes is one of four types of dinosaur footprints identified by University of Utah geologists at a Jurassic Period dinosaur "trample surface" in northern Arizona. The footprints previously had been thought to be modern potholes eroded by water. The inset outlines the footprint shape.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

Photo on left shows eroded dinosaur footprints, and tail-drag marks highlighted in the diagram at right, at a northern Arizona site that University of Utah geologists are calling "a dinosaur dance floor."
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

This 4-inch long Grallator dinosaur track is among four types of dinosaur footprints identified by University of Utah geologists at a large dinosaur "trample surface" in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness near the Arizona-Utah border. They were left by a small dinosaur, perhaps only 3 feet tall, some 190 million years ago.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

This 14-inch-long Sauropodomorph dinosaur track actually is two footprints in one and was left by a creature that walked on four legs. The imprint includes the deeper central circular portion, which was left when a dinosaur's "pes" or rear foot, stepped into the larger, shallower print left by a "manus" or front foot. The toe prints, top and upper right, were left by the front foot, obscuring prints from the rear toes. The print is one of many identified by University of Utah scientists at a large dinosaur "trample surface" in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

This photo shows a trackway, or set of prints made by the same dinosaur, as it walked through a wet, sandy oasis some 190 million years ago in what is now the Coyote Buttes North area straddling the Utah-Arizona border. University of Utah geologists published a new study showing that numerous impressions at the site are dinosaur tracks, not erosion-caused potholes as was believed previously.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

The "dinosaur dance floor," formally known as a dinosaur "trample surface," is outlined by white dashes in this photo taken from a hill above the three-quarter-acre site. The site's numerous holes in Jurassic sandstone were identified as dinosaur tracks by University of Utah geologists Marjorie Chan and Winston Seiler.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

A dinosaur trample surface (marked by the star) has been identified on the Arizona side of that state's border with Utah. Geologists from the University of Utah determined the numerous impressions at the site are dinosaur tracks, not erosion features.
(Credit: Winston Seiler)

University of Utah geologist Winston Seiler walks in the path of dinosaurs. The dinosaur tracks were preserved in a "trample surface" where the reptiles likely gathered to drink water at an oasis among arid sand dunes some 190 million years ago. The site is in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness along the Arizona-Utah border.
(Credit: Roger Seiler)

Note: Access to Area is Limited, Permits Required

The dinosaur trample surface and a nearby feature known as the Wave are in the Coyote Buttes North Special Permit Area of the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area. A permit and $7 per person fee are required to enter the area.

There is now a four-month wait for the 10 permits issued daily by phone or online. For permits by phone, call the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in St. George, Utah, at (435) 688-3246. For information and permits online, go here , and then click on “Coyote Buttes.” (If Coyote Buttes page doesn’t open, follow instructions to enable TLS security.)

An additional 10 permits are issued daily – one day in advance of the hike – during a 9 a.m. walk-in lottery March 15-Nov. 14 at the Paria Contact Station, and Nov. 15-March 14 at the BLM’s Kanab (Utah) Field Office.

Comments

[האח הגדול]

wow!
More proof that were dinosaurs!

[Jen Viegas]

The number of tracks does appear to be astounding. Hard to believe these were missed before, don't you think? It makes me wonder what other dinosaur treasure troves could be literally underneath our feet.

[kellie]

very cool

[kellie]

those tracks don't look 190 million years old. kind of looks like maybe a couple of hundred. maybe dinosaurs didn't go extinct. maybe there still aalive today. I mean if we can miss something like this... Just think about it

[Jen Viegas]

Most paleontologists put "non-avian" before the word dinosaur, because birds are the living relatives from this group. I'm doing a story on a turkey-sized dino now, but I really see the link when watching the large flightless birds.
Fun to think about true dinosaurs tromping around somewhere, as you wrote, Kellie. The "dance floor" site is so well preserved that it seems like the dinosaurs must still be there.

[Barbara]

We have a permit to hike in the North Coyote Butte Area (The Wave) on Oct. 30th. Can anyone tell us how to find the tracks? bigskyoverbarbara@yahoo.com

[Jen Viegas]

There's a map at:
http://www.kapplemultimedia.com/images/map-the-wave.jpg
I haven't been to the site. (The Wave looks incredible.) Hopefully someone else here can provide more detailed directions.

[Shazia]

Good Post! Very informative–glad that you are going to continue writing things like this!

[Jennifer Viegas]

Thanks for taking the time to write, Shazia. I appreciate your stopping by.

[Canyonmanterry]

I was looking at your photos and notice something familar. I work at the Grand Canyon and came across a area on the east wall just east of Desert Veiw on the edge. Like others have told me they were erosion holes from rain. Your holes look the same. I have some questions so. your rock should be newer than the kiabab limestone here? right?

[Jennifer Viegas]

Hi Tacoma,
Thanks for your comment. Please note that the images come from the University of Utah study, which has been controversial, as you suggest. Questions would have to go to those researchers. Maybe they'll check in here too? I won't hold my breath, but you never know.
Jen

[شات]

nice
thanks