Fossil footprints are ancient traces of living animals — termed trace fossils. Trace fossils also include eggs, faeces (coprolites) and trails and burrows of invertebrates (animals with no backbones).
You are probably more familiar with the skeletons of extinct animals, such as the iconic dinosaurs, which fill the halls of our museums — these are termed body fossils. They tend to steal the excitement of children away from footprints, and very often, from scientists too. In fact, although fossil footprints sparked much excitement with their first discoveries in the early 19th century, it is has only been relatively recently that we are beginning to realise just how important they really are.
Fossil footprints show us how extinct animals moved; they are geological “movies” of dinosaurs going about their daily business. They record the dynamic interaction between the animal and the ground upon which it walks. Fossil footprints also help us to understand extinct animal behaviour (e.g. did they live in herds, did they hunt in packs?); they help us to understand their ecology (what other animals did they live with?); they help us to understand their environment (did it contain rivers, lakes or was it near the coast?). Very often, fossil footprints may be the only traces of extinct animals (in a particular area).
Indeed, as the great Sherlock Holmes quipped in A Study in Scarlet, “There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected, as the art of tracing footsteps”.
Above: Fossil footprint of a three toed dinosaur. Such footprints are records of how extinct animals moved; note the claw mark (top, centre) indicating that the toe was dragged through this sediment (photograph from the Middle Jurassic, Yorkshire coast).
This is the first in a series of articles aiming to introduce the reader to the study of fossil footprints, with a particular focus on my area of study, dinosaur footprints.
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