Monday, December 23, 2013

Dinosaur Tracks - New Mexico/Oklahoma

Crystal Kerber and myself investigated dinosaur tracks laid out along the edge of a shallow sea some 100 million years ago.  The three-toed tracks produced by giant plant eating reptiles are embedded in large horizontal slabs of sandstone that were exposed during the construction of the Clayton Lake dam in northeastern New Mexico.  Check out the UC Berkley paleontology website (here) for more information on the Clayton Lake tracks.  After exploring the tracks and local wildlife at Clayton Lake, we drove one hour northeast to Black Mesa, Oklahoma, and viewed another linear set of tracks exposed in a dry creek bed.

Three-toed dinosaur track embedded in sandstone above Clayton Lake, NM.
Dinosaur track.  Clayton Lake, NM.
Dinosaur tracks embedded in sandstone/mudstone within dry stream bed near Black Mesa, OK.
Dinosaur tracks.  Black Mesa, OK.
Dinosaur tracks.  Black Mesa, OK.

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