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

2011年6月6日，阿肯色大学地球科学系收到了一名公民？在阿肯色州西南部发掘出恐龙足迹的报告。这条足迹在古生物学上具有重要意义，因为在阿肯色州首次发现了大型兽脚亚目恐龙（暂归为阿托克Acrocanthosaurus atokensis）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，鸟脚亚目，较小的兽脚亚目，以及其他尚未确定的四足恐龙）。来自阿肯色大学、堪萨斯大学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6000平方米）进行虚拟重建。此外，科学小组将尝试使用传统的铸造技术和采石来保存部分轨道，以供日后研究和公开展示。公开传播这些保存完好的恐龙足迹集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难得的机会。该遗址对试图重建早白垩纪(125 ？1亿年前)。轨道发育在阿肯色州西南部的DeQueen石灰岩的蒸发岩（主要是石膏，但也有石膏质泥岩和薄灰岩）中。这个地点被解释为位于早白垩世大气哈德利细胞的下降分支之下，可能有助于描绘早白垩世全球水文循环。最后，该项目聘请了三位早期职业科学家作为合作者，其中两位来自一个代表性不足的群体（西班牙裔女性）；其中一人将于2012年8月加入阿肯色大学地球科学系。参与这项研究项目为这些早期职业科学家提供了一个独特的机会，可以建立合作关系，并开发充满活力的前沿研究项目。

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.