NSF RAPID: Salvaging a newly discovered dinosaur trackway from southwest Arkansas, USA.

2011年6月6日，阿肯色州大学地球科学系接待了一位公民？据报道，在阿肯色州西南部挖掘出一条恐龙足迹。 这条足迹在古生物学上具有重要意义，因为它是阿肯色州首次发现大型兽脚类恐龙（暂被认为是阿托克龙）的足迹。 这些足迹出现在各种各样的其他恐龙足迹形态中（蜥脚类恐龙，鸟脚类恐龙，较小的兽脚类恐龙和其他尚未确定的四足恐龙）。 来自阿肯色州、堪萨斯和德克萨斯大学的科学家？圣安东尼奥将使用最先进的激光成像技术对整个轨道场地（约6,000平方米）进行虚拟重建。 此外，科学团队将尝试使用传统的铸造技术和采石技术来保护部分轨道，以供日后研究和公开展示。 公开传播这个保存完好的恐龙足迹组合的信息，为阿肯色州和全国的非正式科学教育提供了一个特殊的机会。1亿年前）。该轨道在阿肯色州西南部的DeQueen石灰岩中发育（主要是石膏，但也有含石膏的泥岩和薄石灰岩）。 这个网站被解释为位于下白垩纪早期大气哈德利细胞下降的肢体，并可能有助于在白垩纪早期的全球水文循环的划定。 最后，该项目聘请了三名早期职业科学家，其中两人来自一个代表性不足的群体（西班牙裔女性），作为合作者;其中一人将于2012年8月加入阿肯色州大学地球科学系。 参与这个研究项目为这些早期职业科学家提供了一个独特的机会，以建立合作关系，并制定充满活力的尖端研究计划。

On 6 June 2011, the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences received a citizen?s report of a dinosaur trackway exhumed in southwest Arkansas. The trackway is paleontologically significant as the first occurrence of tracks from a large theropod (tentatively attributed to Acrocanthosaurus atokensis) in Arkansas. These tracks occur among a diverse assortment of other dinosaur track morphologies (sauropods, ornithodopods, smaller theropods, and other as-yet-unidentified quadrupedal dinosaurs). Scientists from the University of Arkansas, University of Kansas, and University of Texas ? San Antonio will use state-of-the-art laser imaging to create virtual reconstructions of the entire trackway site (approximately 6,000 m2). In addition, the scientific team will attempt to preserve portions of the trackways using traditional casting techniques and quarrying of the trackways for later study and public display. Publicly disseminating information from this well-preserved assemblage of dinosaur tracks provides an exceptional opportunity for informal science education in Arkansas and nationwide.The site is also of geological importance to studies attempting to reconstruct global climate during the early Cretaceous period (125 ? 100 million years ago). The trackway is developed among evaporites (primarily gypsum, but also gypsiferous mudstones and thin limestones) of the DeQueen limestone in SW Arkansas. This site was interpreted to lie beneath the descending limb of the early Cretaceous atmospheric Hadley Cell and may aid in delineation of the early Cretaceous global hydrologic cycle. Finally, the project engages three early career scientists, two of whom are from an underreprestented group (Hispanic females), as collaborators; one of these will join the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences faculty in August 2012. Participation in this research project provides a unique opportunity for these early career scientists to establish collaborative relationships and in developing vigorous, cutting-edge research programs.