RUI: Morphological and Systematic Analysis of Bipedal Dinosaur Footprints from Texas: Experimental and Field Studies

恐龙轨迹是解释功能形态和行为进化的独特而重要的资源。詹姆斯·法罗博士提出了一种新的实验方法来解释恐龙的足迹。他提议对不会飞的扁平鸟如何在各种沉积底质上留下足迹进行录像和分析。与本科生研究合作者一起，首席研究员将分析底物特征以及几种鸟类的年龄和解剖对结果的影响。然后将研究德克萨斯州白垩纪时代的恐龙足迹，利用实验结果来解释在化石足迹中发现的可变性。这项拟议的研究的意义超出了对恐龙轨迹本身的研究。这种创新的实验方法将使古生物学家能够更准确地重建共享古代栖息地的恐龙的身份、丰度和年龄分布。该项目将为恐龙的生物力学和步态以及它们的社会结构和行为提供新的见解。法洛博士将使用最新的技术对脚印进行计算机辅助形状分析，他的本科生将在他的指导下获得重要的研究经验。

Dinosaur trackways represent a unique and important resource for interpreting functional morphology and the evolution of behavior. Dr. James Farlow proposes a new experimental approach to interpreting dinosaur trackways. He proposes to videotape and analyze how flightless ratite birds leave their footprints in a variety of sedimentary substrata. Along with undergraduate research collaborators, the Principal Investigator will analyze the effects of substrate character and the age and anatomy of several bird species on the resulting tracks. Dinosaur trackways of Cretaceous age in Texas will then be studied, using the experimental findings to interpret the variability found among the fossil footprints. The proposed research has implications beyond the study of dinosaur trackways themselves. This innovative experimental approach will allow paleontologists to more accurately reconstruct the identities, abundances and age distributions of dinosaurs that shared an ancient habitat. The project will provide new insight into the biomechanics and gait of dinosaurs, and into their social structure and behavior as well. Dr. Farlow will be using the most current techniques for computer-aided shape analysis of the footprints, and his undergraduate students will gain important research experience under his supervision.