Were Sauropods Wading in China? | The Institute for Creation Research

Were Sauropods Wading in China?

It’s tough to beat a genuine dinosaur trackway for a fascinating glimpse of ancient life. Among the frozen tracks of giant, four-footed sauropod dinosaurs like Apatosaurus now frozen in stone, most preserve both hind feet and "hands"—or in tech speak, the "pes" and "manus." But newly exposed tracks from Gansu Province in northern China have experts scrabbling to explain why they only preserve sauropod hind feet.

Perhaps the dinosaurs were wading or partly swimming, like other tracks elsewhere in the world.1 But if that were the case, the ancient animals’ hind feet might make swipe marks where only the claws touched the bottom sediments. These tracks in China look normal with no swipe marks—but contain no front footprints.

Were the dinosaurs somehow walking on their hind feet like some kind of reptilian circus bear? Lida Xing, lead author of the study published online in Scientific Reports, told University of Bristol News, "Nobody would say these huge dinosaurs could stagger along on their hind legs alone—they would fall over."2

The research team conceived a new solution. They hypothesized that these medium-sized giant dinosaurs were walking on muddy flats soft enough for their hind legs to puncture an overlying mud layer, but that mud layer was hard enough for their front feet to leave no impressions in a sandy layer just below the mud.

The study authors wrote,

This implies both a moister, more saturated substrate [bottom sediment] and an overlying layer of sediment on which the animals were walking. These conditions are easily and quite simply explained by the fact that the track-bearing sandstone layers are overlain by fine mudstones and siltstones indicating a transition to subaqueous (lacustrine [lake bottom]) deposition. Sauropods walking on a layer of soft silt and mud deposited on top of the sandstone would likely spread their pes [front] claws to grip and penetrate the substrate steeply….3

Is their creative explanation really as easy and simple as they make it sound?

Even if this scenario actually solves the hind track mystery, it introduces new questions. For example, where does sand discretely underlie a mud layer without a rapid rise in water level, whether surrounding environments are transitioning or not?

And about that supposed transition: How long would it have taken, considering dinosaurs walked right through it? It looks like hours or days. And how does thick mud so quickly cover sand without some type of flood event?

Also, where do either sandy or muddy bottoms preserve large animal tracks for perpetuity? Waves wash and worms churn tracks, erasing them in just weeks. However, flooding can preserve soft sediment footprints by quickly covering them with a layer of sediment.

These authors may have zeroed in on a helpful solution to the hind track mystery by saying that these dinosaurs were simply walking on layered sediments with differing levels of hardness, but in the process they dredged up new sedimentary mysteries that a global Flood can solve.

References

  1. Thomas, B. New Dinosaur Tracks Study Suggests Cataclysm. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org January 25, 2013, accessed February 18, 2016. 
  2. Sauropod swimmers or walkers? University of Bristol News. Posted on bristol.ac.uk February 18, 2016, accessed February 18, 2016. 
  3. Xing, L. et al. 2016. Digit-only sauropod pes trackways from China—evidence of swimming or a preservational phenomenon? Scientific Reports. 6: 21138. 

Image credit: © 2016 L. Xing. Scientific Reports. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on February 25, 2016.

The Latest
CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Struck: Risking It All for the Truth | Creation.Live Podcast:...
In this unique episode, host Trey talks with three key people involved in creating Struck—an upcoming miniseries that shows the special ties between...

NEWS
Giant Ants Buried in Receding Flood Rocks
Evolutionary scientists are baffled by a large ant fossil found in British Columbia, Canada. Known as Titanomyrma, this same ant had been found previously...

CREATION PODCAST
Why Do Animals Hibernate? | The Creation Podcast: Episode 45
The word hibernation is often used in reference to deep sleep, but what is it really? What kinds of creatures hibernate? How does this demonstrate the...

NEWS
Thalattosuchians—Extinct Crocodile Relatives?
The Thalattosuchia are an extinct group of marine crocodylomorphs (a group that includes the crocodiles) that allegedly transitioned from land to water...

NEWS
The Star-Nosed Mole
The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) is a fascinating semi-aquatic mammal found in eastern Canada and the United States. Moles (placental mammals)...

NEWS
The Hexagon: An Indication of Order and Design in Nature
In nature, noncoincidental patterns and geometry exist everywhere. But the number six appears to overshadow nature’s mathematical landscape. Whether...

NEWS
Neanderthal Crab Bake
The evolutionary science community said it perfectly in their headlines: “Proof that Neanderthals ate crabs is another 'nail in the coffin'...

CREATION PODCAST
Is There Any Truth to Dragon Legends? | The Creation Podcast:...
Dragons are considered by many to be made-up creatures in fairytales and legends, but our ancestors produced many descriptions and depictions of "dragons,"...

NEWS
Our Sun, Finely Tuned for Life on Earth
Aside from appreciating the splendor of the sun during a beautiful sunrise or sunset, many rarely consider how special, necessary, and finely tuned...

NEWS
March 2023 ICR Wallpaper
"Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who...