Earth  ID: 4488

Cretaceous-Era Dinosaur Prints Found at Goddard Space Flight Center

Visualizations by Kel Elkins Released on January 31, 2018
Download Options
This visualization begins with a satellite view of the NASA Goddard campus. A marker appears to show where a nodosaur print from the Cretaceous-era was found. The camera then zooms out to a global view, which is then compared to a similar view of a Cretaceous-era Earth. Differences in ice coverage, CO2 concentration, and sea level are described before surface air temperature data for both time periods fades in, showing that the Cretaceous era was much warmer than modern day.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
A newly discovered assemblage of predominantly small tracks from the Cretaceous Patuxent Formation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, reveals one of the highest track densities and diversities ever reported (~70 tracks, representing at least eight morphotypes from an area of only ~2 m2). The assemblage is dominated by small mammal tracks including the new ichnotxon Sederipes goddardensis, indicating sitting postures. Small crow-sized theropod trackways, the first from this unit, indicate social trackmakers and suggest slow-paced foraging behavior. Tracks of pterosaurs, and other small vertebrates suggest activity on an organic-rich substrate. Large well-preserved sauropod and nodosaurs tracks indicate the presence of large dinosaurs. The Patuxent Formation, together with the recently reported Angolan assemblage, comprise the world’s two largest Mesozoic mammal footprint assemblages. The high density of footprint registration at the NASA site indicates special preservational and taphonomic conditions. These include early, penecontemporaneous deposition of siderite in organic rich, reducing wetland settings where even the flesh of body fossils can be mummified. Thus, the track-rich ironstone substrates of the Patuxent Formation, appear to preserve a unique vertebrate ichnofacies, with associated, exceptionally-preserved body fossil remains for which there are currently no other similar examples preserved in the fossil record.

Download Options
Same video as above, without text/titles.
Download Options
Zoom from NASA Goddard campus out to global view.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center image licensed under NextView © 2016 DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Download Options
Spinning Earth with Cretaceous-era average surface air temperature data
Download Options
Spinning Earth with modern average surface air temperature data
Download Options
Global view with a camera rotation down to see ice on the South Pole.
Download Options
Global view with a camera rotation down to see no ice in a Cretaceous-era climate.
Download Options
Spinning globe depicting Cretaceous-era geography.
 

Related

Resource page: Dinosaur Age Meets the Space Age at NASA Goddard

Visualization Credits

Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Swarupa Nune (InuTeq): Lead Producer
Compton Tucker (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center image licensed under NextView © 2016 DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4488

Data Used:
MERRA
Analysis - 2015
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth