Tracks of Brutes too Heavy to Walk

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 54, 6 March 1939, Page 5

Tracks of Brutes too Heavy to Walk

DALLAS —Roland T. Bird of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History said-he had found conclusive evidence that the gigantic sauropod dinosaurs walked on land. His find—a 100-yard trail of footprints at Glen Rose, Texas—clears up one of the mysteries in fossil science, Mr Bird said, and ends a long textbook battle. Authorities had disputed whether thq aquatic sauropods, greatest of all vertebrates known in the Age of Reptiles, 100,000,009 years ago, ever walked on land. It had been assumed they need water to buoy up their enormous bodies. “I’ve been around dinosaur remains long enough to know I have made a find,” Air Bird said. After unearthing lhe first print, Mr Bird dug out a trail six feet, across which followed a shelf along a river, crossed the river bed, and came up on the other side. The Glen Rose sauropod could stride 12 feet. His great weight sank his feet into the ground nearly two feet. Tho forefeet, said Bird, show evidence of having been heavily padded and were two feet across. The hind feet were nearly a yard in length and measure 26 inches across. They bore three large claws with a suggestion of a fourth. They were lizard-like in form. The sauropod was an ungainly creature with a long neck and tail. Brontosaurus, the most commonly known one, was 65 feet long, had a hide like that of a modern lizard. 1 “They were very large.” said Mr Bird. “The weight of an adult, must have been about 20 or 30 tons. It has always been assumed they were unable to even walk on land. Their skeletal remains found in many parts of the world show' that they were plant feeders that had become adapted to living in water. With their great weight buoyed up by water, they half walked, half floated around in deep lakes and lagoons, feeding on what shore vegetation they could reach with their long necks.” Little Tommy turned- up at school with a front, tooth broken. “How did you break your tooth, i Tommy?” asked his teacher. “Changing gear on a lollipop, sir.”