Desert DiaryMarch 5, 2003
Desert Diary
The El Paso region has long been known to have fossil remains of dinosaurs to the west, to the north, and, of course, down in the Big Bend. Few have doubted that they roamed our part of the world, too--that is, when we weren't under water. Nevertheless, no sign of them appeared. Until recently, that is. No, no skeletons, not even a wayward bone or two, but something that you might think even less likely to survive a hundred million or so years--tracks!
During the Mid-Cretaceous, our chunk of the Chihuahuan Desert was near sea level, sometimes above, sometimes below. Now whenever land sinks gently beneath ocean waves or slowly emerges above, there's a time in-between when the land is a beach. And as anyone knows who's watched children run up and down a wet beach, conditions couldn't be better for making tracks. Dinosaurs that are weighed by the ton are even better than children! Under just the right conditions, protected by gentle deposition of sediment over them, footprints will last almost forever--and did!
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
