How do you advertise your business? Sure, you’ve got the cards, the yellow-page ads, some radio time, and maybe television ads or a billboard or two, but how effective are those in today’s internet-based economy? Don’t ditch the cards quite yet, but you may want to consider some more effective ways to advertise your business in a world woven in the Net. From cell phones to laptops; desktops to the XBox, our world is becoming more and more Internet-based. Most people rely on maps to new locations provided to them from an online resource such as Google or Yahoo maps. Where do you think they get those new business addresses? If you fall into the vast majority of people searching for businesses, probably the same way you get them–searching online.

As any small business owner will tell you, from real estate agents to plumbers, plastic surgeons to auto repair shops, your company’s visibility is a key component to success. A decade ago most people opened up the yellow pages and let their fingers do the walking to find products and services. Times are changing and today things are very different. Consumers young and old are becoming more and more Internet savvy, using the Internet as their primary source to find products and services. That is why it is so important for your company’s website to be in the right place on the Internet: the first page! If your company’s site is hidden on page 30 of the search engine (Yahoo, Excite, or Google) you are missing out on a huge percent of potential business. Potential customers will almost never see your company’s name at their most prone point to buy, and that will cause you to lose the business to a competitor.

Now, through a process called Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO” for short, you can be sure that your company’s website and contact information will be at the top or near the top of the first page search. SEO technology is now available to the masses and is a great way to jump-start your business and increase your bottom line.

The best part of SEO is that those potential customers are searching for exactly what they want, thus executing a perfect search directing them to your website when they are ready to buy. For example, if a person is looking for an auto repair shop in a specific town and your company fits the search criteria, they will be referred to your website and your phone will be ringing.

As Tom Anderson, CEO of NavGrp.NET, a leading SEO research and advertising company explains, “Search engine optimization is the easiest, and one of the least expensive ways to generate new business”. He also added, “The real beauty of this is that it is passive advertising. When people are ready to pull out their wallets for a service, they look for your company, and there you are, ready to make a sale! With SEO, we can drive extremely targeted leads to your business.”

Brontosaurus or brachiosaurus are the herbivorous dinosaurs which were as huge as a large house and they used to eat tons of plants each day to survive. However, not many people know that these dinosaurs also pooped as much as they ate! Dinosaur poop is referred to as coprolite. Other animals, which were relatively smaller than the dinosaurs, used the nutrients in the dinosaur poop.

As the plants need some manure, the poop of the dinosaur which was produced in tons on a daily basis, helped them to grow healthily. This enabled the forests in the dinosaur era to be fertile and green which, in turn, helped the dinosaur to get its food which became poop and then manure. It was like a never-ending cycle.

Researchers can say whether a dinosaur ate plant or meat by analyzing the fossil of the dinosaur poop. There is also a possibility to know what kind of plant or animal the dinosaurs consumed.

Sometimes arguments arise related to coprolite. Some of the coprolites, which were found in India, say that the dinosaurs lived on grass which the scientists say would have not existed at the time of the dinosaurs. This grass is said to be evolved 55 to 65 million years ago. These coprolites produce the evidence that gondwanatheres evolved with its teeth adaptable to eat the grass.

In 1998, a coprolite was found in Saskatchewan, Canada, which was 19 inches in length and around 6 inches in thickness. It is thought to be the largest fossil of coprolite till date. This coprolite is also said to have remains of bone and blood vessels, and it is the belief of the archeologists that it belongs to a T. Rex, which lived in North America some 60 million years ago. But to know which coprolite belongs to a particular dinosaur is nearly impossible.

However, fossils of dinosaur poop are quite important for paleontologists as they give them more information about the eating habits of dinosaurs.

Papo Baby Triceratops Dinosaur Model Reviewed

Papo, the French model and figure manufacturer introduced sometime ago, two models of baby dinosaurs into their replica range. In addition, to these “youngsters” the company has just added a model of a baby Triceratops to their dinosaurs model portfolio and very cute it is to.

Triceratops fossils are the most common dinosaur fossil found in the famous Hell Creek Formation of the western United States of America. This Upper Cretaceous rock formation can be found in Montana, Wyoming and North/South Dakota. Nearly forty percent of all the dinosaur fossils found to date have been ascribed to the Triceratops genus, but baby Triceratops fossils are extremely rare.

Likely to get Eaten by a Predator

Any baby dinosaur that died out on the Late Cretaceous plains would in all likelihood have quickly been eaten by a scavenging Theropod dinosaur. As the bones of juveniles are much smaller than the bones of adults, they are less likely to survive the fossilisation process. However, in recent years a number of fossils of other types of horned dinosaur have been found (Canada and the USA) and this Papo young Triceratops model is based on this fossil material.

Beautifully Painted Baby Triceratops

The model measures a fraction over ten centimetres in length and the head stands nearly six centimetres high, it is a beautifully painted dinosaur model. The design team at Papo have given their baby Triceratops two small brow horns and a tiny nasal horn. Scientists are aware that these horned dinosaurs grew bigger horns as they got older. The head shield has tiny bumps along the edges and it has been painted a sandy colour, the same tone as the underside of the dinosaur replica. The detailing on the skin is very clever. Fossilised skin of an adult Triceratops has been discovered and the model makers at Papo must have used this fossil evidence as the basis for the skin patterning on their baby dinosaur replica. The mouth is open and a small, pink, triangular-shaped tongue can be made out inside in the jaw.

A Companion for the Papo Adult Triceratops

Although it is not possible to give a scale size for this model, it is worth noting that this figure works very well with the model of the adult Triceratops that was added to the Papo model range some years ago.

Count the Toes

There is one anatomical error that we spotted on the model. Triceratops had five digits on its front feet and four toes on its hind feet. Unfortunately, this dinosaur model has only got four digits on each of its front feet. This is a common error when it comes to horned dinosaur figures and replicas.

An Excellent Papo Dinosaur Model

This one small gripe aside, this is an excellent Papo dinosaur model, one that will delight collectors and young dinosaur fans alike. It is highly recommended and hopefully this French-based manufacturer will consider introducing more baby dinosaur models into its figure and replica range in the future.

One of four new additions to the Schleich “World of History Prehistoric Life” model series, the Schleich Therizinosaurus is also the largest of the 2014 introductions.

Measuring around twenty centimetres long and standing over twenty centimetres tall, this is certainly an impressive model. Therizinosaurus (T. cheloniformis) was certainly an impressive looking dinosaur, it was able to look the biggest Tyrannosaurs straight in the eye. Therizinosaurids, are a group of bizarre Cretaceous Theropods that although descended from carnivorous dinosaurs, adapted to a herbivorous diet. Their huge, three-fingered hands were equipped with massive talons, that although not sharp along their curved edge, would have been capable of inflicting terrible wounds should any predator be foolish enough to try to tackle Therizinosaurus.

Standing on Its Hind Legs

Therizinosaurs were almost entirely bipedal, those long claws preventing them from walking on all fours. The claws served as defensive weapons but also probably acted as grappling hooks permitting this dinosaur to pull down branches from trees so that this browser could feed on leaves and fruit. Some scientists have suggested that Therizinosaurids may have been omnivores, occasionally supplementing their vegetarian diet by catching and eating small mammals, lizards and insects. It has also been suggested that these dinosaurs may have also scavenged the carcases of other dead animals, using their strong arms to rip into the body permitting them access to the highly nutritious internal organs such as the liver.

Influenced by Luis Rey

The Schleich model has a blue underside, dotted with black spots. The head, tail and the back of this replica have been painted a light bronze, almost an orange colour. The model closely resembles an illustration of Therizinosaurus created some years ago by the renowned artist Luis Rey.

Articulated Arms and Lower Jaw

The German manufacturer has chosen to give their Theropod replica an articulated lower jaw. When the mouth is opened the fine detail of the painted teeth and the mouth can be seen. This model also has moveable arms so those formidable claws can be moved up and down, as if threatening another dinosaur. The texture of the skin has been well-crafted and the model looks like it has been covered on the flanks and back with a fine coat of downy feathers. Scientists believe that Therizinosaurus may indeed have been a feathered dinosaur.

Well Balanced Replica of a Cretaceous Herbivore

Unlike other Theropods, Therizinosaurus did not move around on three toes, it walked on all four toes. The feet of this dinosaur have been well moulded and the correct number of digits have been added to each foot. With its green eyes and powerful arms Therizinosaurus looks quite fierce, an attribute that no doubt, will go down well with dinosaur model collectors and budding young palaeontologists.

Welcome Addition to the Model Range

The Schleich Therizinosaurus dinosaur model is a very welcome addition to the “World of History” series and it is great to see this German manufacturer making replicas of more unusual members of the Dinosauria. We highly recommend this replica.

Webosaurs is a social networking massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) that was launched in October 2009 by Reel FX Entertainment. It began as a free beta test site until all programming issues were corrected. The site is aimed at children from ages 5 to 12. Dinosaurs have always been popular with children. With the rise in popularity of virtual worlds, it was only a matter of time before a company seized the dinosaur theme and created a virtual world around it. The dinosaurs that children choose as their avatars are animated cartoon dinosaurs who roam an island landscape.

Children can explore the website for free; however, this limits the activity they can have. Paid memberships begin at $5.94 per month. A 6 month membership is $29.94 and a 12 month membership is $49.94. A paid membership allows players to enjoy the full features of the world, including games, activities, adventures and chat. Parents should know that in order for the game to operate properly, several technical requirements must be met. The computer must have Adobe Flash Player 10; Internet Explorer 7; 1 GB of RAM; and a connection speed of at least 512Kbps.

Features

Once children become members of Webosaurs, they choose a dinosaur as an avatar to be their online personality. Players then choose a home for their dinosaur (known as a cave) and can alter it as they see fit. Members can also adopt or buy virtual pets. Pets that are not taken care of don’t die – they run away. The currency of Webosaurs is simply called ‘coins’. Players earn this currency by successfully playing the online games and taking quizzes. The ‘coins’ buy everything from cave items, clothing, food, armor and pet supplies. Armor is the most-wanted item in Webosaurs because it protects the avatars when they engage in battle. The different levels of armor must be purchased in this sequence: leather, wood, bone, steel, molten and gold. Dinosaurs need armor because most of the games are action-oriented. A dinosaur is better protected to win a game if they have the most advanced armor. Members can also chat about their dinosaurs with other players in a chat room.

What’s Good

The graphics of Webosaurs are very well done. When animating or creating dinosaurs, the tendency is to make them look too cute or very scary. The website has found a nice balance between the two extremes. Webosaurs will appeal mainly to boys age 8 to 12. The website knows who its audience is and has created a virtual world surrounding that demographic. There are no adult themes in the virtual world or on the website. There is no drinking, smoking, drug use, sex or offensive language. Moderators who monitor chat rooms and the games are plentiful. If something inappropriate is said or done, the offending player is muted or ultimately banned.

Webosaurs has an interesting educational component. On the home page, members can view short clips about animals and nature called Webosaurs Shorts that are hosted by Nigel Marven, a wildlife expert and host of BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park. The website didn’t have to do this, so they are trying to incorporate some kind of educational component into a mainly game-focused website.

What’s Bad

Violence may be an issue for some parents. Though there is no blood spilled or any gore, parents should be aware that Webosaurs is an action-oriented online game where the players take the form of aggressive dinosaurs. Recently, the website has undergone an update that includes the addition of an antagonist called Spike who is threatening to take over the island. As well, there are new monster battle games where players battle an evil monster called Okvango. Players use weapons to defeat these monsters. It would appear that as Webosaurs evolves, it is becoming more aggressive, with more threatening antagonists. These recent changes may concern parents.

Online Safety

Though the website’s biggest assets are the online games, like every other virtual world, a chat room exists for players to socialize. There are two chat modes: safe chat (the child clicks on a predetermined chat message) and open chat (the child types in their own message which is moderated). Children should feel safe and comfortable using Webosaurs because moderators are always live on chat and in the games. This is an important aspect of online safety that Webosaurs excels at and other virtual worlds should adopt.

Collecta Saurophaganax Dinosaur Model Reviewed

Collecta, a figure and replica manufacturer have released a model of the dinosaur known as Saurophaganax into their prehistoric animal model series. Saurophaganax may not be the best known of all the dinosaurs, but it does deserve greater recognition, as it may well turn out to be one of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs of all. Some palaeontologists have even suggested that this dinosaur was the size of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Jurassic Predator

Fossils of this prehistoric reptile were first found in the State of Oklahoma. More recently fossils ascribed to this genus have been excavated from nearby New Mexico. This dinosaur was named Saurophagus in the early 1940’s, but this name had to be changed as scientific literature had already acknowledged this genus as being assigned to a species of fly-catcher, a bird. The new name Saurophaganax was erected, however, it was not until 1995 that this genus was established, following a review of the fragmentary fossil material by Daniel Chure of the Dinosaur National Monument (Utah).

Fantastic Detail on this Dinosaur Model

Unlike the majority of the Collecta range, this figure is supported by a base. This permits the hind feet to be kept in approximate proportion to the rest of the body. The figure is beautifully painted with a green body, and cream underside with dark, black stripes running down the trunk and along the lengthy tail. The crests over the eyes, so typical of an allosaurid dinosaur are very prominent. They have been painted a fetching pink colour, which contrasts nicely with the paintwork on the rest of the replica. This dinosaur is posed with its huge jaws wide open, the long tongue and rows of teeth can be clearly seen. Collecta are to be congratulated for the superb care that they have demonstrated in getting the detailing of the skull so accurate.

Allosaurus versus Saurophaganax

The genus name (Saurophaganax) remains in dispute with a number of scientists not accepting this as a valid genus (nomen dubium). The fossils, first excavated in 1931 are extremely fragmentary and although the bone bed where the fossils were found might contain the remains of four meat-eating dinosaurs, no skull material has been discovered and the bones that palaeontologists do have could be those of a very big Allosaurus. Some scientists prefer to call this dinosaur Allosaurus maximus rather than Saurophaganax maximus. These palaeontologists think that the fossil bones do not represent a new genus at all, but represent a super-sized species of an already named and described genus – Allosaurus.

This Collecta model of a Saurophaganax of if preferred Allosaurus maximus, is very well made and wonderfully well painted. We recommend this replica to dinosaur model fans and to collectors.

Downloadable Dinosaur Resources a Cautionary Tale

For parents and guardians keen to home school their charges there are lots of downloadable teaching resources available to assist them with schemes of work and subsequent lesson plans. Making dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in general a teaching topic can bring a lot of rewards, helping to motivate and enthuse students in mathematics and science as well as in creative writing. However, home schoolers need to be careful when downloading dinosaur themed resources for use in lessons, some of the materials have many mistakes and errors.

When is Triceratops a Triceratops?

It is important to use accurate and correct teaching materials. It defeats the object of the exercise if the teaching resources are misleading and inaccurate. For example, our team members, during one of their many school visits to teach about dinosaurs and fossils, came across some fact sheets that had been downloaded but these downloads had a number of errors. The Triceratops fact sheet for instance, explained what the name Triceratops means “three-horned face”, it provided details about when this animal lived and how big it may have been but the picture of the dinosaur used to illustrate the fact sheet was not that of a Triceratops. The dinosaur depicted was a horned dinosaur but it did not have two long brow horns, it did possess a frill of spikes. The image was more closely resembling a Centrosaurine such as a Styracosaurus.

Spelling Mistakes in Teaching Resources

In addition, when the fact sheets were closely examined, it was noticed that there were a number of spelling errors, the term Theropod used to classify part of the Dinosauria was not spelt correctly. On the fact sheets that had been downloaded this word was spelt “Therapod”, not helpful when working with keen and eager students who are also budding young palaeontologists. Unfortunately, such errors may not be spotted by the teacher but it might be the children with their inherent knowledge of the dinosaurs that point out the errors in the teaching resources.

Helping Parents and Guardians

It is essential that home schoolers have confidence in their home schooling teaching resources. Libraries can provide a source of extremely helpful information and there are a number of support groups and other organisations who help the many thousands of home schoolers to create and prepare lesson plans that can fire imaginations and really help children to develop a life long love of learning. With dinosaurs, children as young as three years of age seem to act like sponges when it comes to picking up and absorbing prehistoric animal facts and figures. Any mistakes in the teaching materials may get spotted by the pupils and this would undermine the lesson being taught.

It is essential that the teachers have confidence in their teaching resources, but with a lack of knowledge concerning the Dinosauria, the problem is how does a home schooler determine the validity of any downloads? Testimonials from other users and recommendations are a good place to start, as is choosing to download materials from a long-established web site that demonstrates knowledge in this specialised subject area.

With St Patrick’s day approaching and with it everything associated with the Emerald Isle being celebrated, our thoughts turn to a geological puzzle that can mystify the uninitiated. The United Kingdom and Ireland are geographically close together, for vertebrate palaeontologists in search of dinosaur fossils southern England can prove to be a rich hunting ground for dinosaur remains. However, Britain’s neighbour – Ireland, is virtually devoid of all Dinosauria, there are no dinosaur fossils to all intents and purposes. Ironically, if you are looking for monstrous reptiles, parts of the south coast of England are a good place to look, but on the island which constitutes Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is the very far north of that particular landmass that you must visit if you wish to go hunting for Mesozoic vertebrates.

Many people are familiar with story of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland whose life and work is celebrated on the 17th of March each year. Of all the saints days in the United Kingdom, it is St Patrick’s that tends to get celebrated the most, at least in our experience. We suspect that this is perhaps more to do with marketing agencies keen to find an event to help sell goods and services that sits nicely between Valentines day and Mothers day rather than any particular reference to his piety.

However, as all things Irish are celebrated, it gives us the opportunity to discuss one of the questions that we often get asked by our Irish customers, why are they dinosaur fossils to be found in the United Kingdom, whilst there are none to be dug up across the Irish Sea in Ireland?

Did St Patrick Drive Out all the Dinosaur Fossils as Well as the Serpents?

One of the stories associated with St. Patrick is that he was responsible for driving out all snakes from Ireland. The serpent (snake) is regarded as an evil creature, its role in Genesis has led to this particular member of the Squamata being cast as the villain in many western civilisations. Despite the apocryphal nature of this tale, it is true there are no native species of snake associated with the “Emerald Isle”. However, an understanding of climate change and the impact of glaciation provides a more likely explanation as to why there are no native snake species. Snakes, of which there are relatively few species in northern Europe, simply did not return to Ireland after an Ice Age event, but why are there no dinosaur fossils? Bizarre, as the lack of snakes in Ireland can be partially explained by there being only three species native to the UK but many genera of dinosaurs have been discovered in the United Kingdom – Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, Lexovisaurus, Hypsilophodon, Scelidosaurus to name but a handful. To the best of our knowledge no dinosaur genus or species has ever been found in Ireland.

Why are there no Dinosaur Fossils in Ireland?

The answer to the question lies beneath your feet, it is all to do with geology. It is a question of understanding the types of exposed strata and their ages that can be found in Ireland and comparing these features to those found in the United Kingdom.

Ireland and the United Kingdom have been closely associated with each other for a substantial portion of geological time. However, in reality the geology of Ireland is much more closely associated with the very north of England and Scotland, indicating that these land masses share an affinity in terms of the geological processes that have shaped their bedrock.

There is another factor to consider, when it comes to looking for dinosaur fossils. Dinosaurs, as far as the known fossil record reveals, were entirely terrestrial animals – they were adapted to a life on land. For much of the Mesozoic (the age of reptiles), the landmass referred to as Ireland today was submerged, covered by seawater so no dinosaurs lived there.

Take for example, the Late Cretaceous. Sea levels had been rising for much of the Cretaceous Period and whilst in the western United States famous dinosaurs such as T. rex and Triceratops stomped around, approximately 98% of Ireland was covered by a shallow sea. Only a tiny portion of the landmass we know as Ireland today was above the water surface, a small, remote island situated on what would eventually become the eastern part of the county of Wicklow. The British Isles during this period was also largely submerged, hence the formation of such well-known geological features as the white cliffs of Dover. These are formed by marine deposits of tiny organisms, mostly phytoplankton and their tiny calcified plates called coccoliths.

Ireland both Northern Ireland and Eire have their share of important fossil locations. The majority of the geological map of Ireland is dominated by sedimentary rock. Limestones, shales, mudstones and coal seams that were laid down during the Carboniferous, a geological period that occurred long before the dinosaurs evolved. There are a number of significant locations in Ireland where invertebrate and primitive plant and fish fossils can be found. However, other types of vertebrate fossil are much, much rarer.

Contrast this with central and southern England where sedimentary strata dating from the Mesozoic is more readily exposed providing scientists with the opportunity to explore and discovery dinosaur fossils within these exposed Jurassic and early Cretaceous rocks.

Ireland’s geology is much more closely related to the geology to be found in the very north of England and Scotland, where very few outcrops of rocks laid down in the age of reptiles are exposed on the surface. In the very north of the landmass that makes up Ireland and Northern Ireland there are many outcrops of metaphorphic rocks and igneous rocks including basalts laid down as a result of violent volcanic eruptions. This is testament to the immense forces that this part of the Earth’s crust experienced as recently as 65 million years ago when the area was dominated by sea mounts and other volcanoes. A visit to the famous geological feature known as the “Giants Causeway” in County Antrim is proof enough of this part of Ireland’s violent geological recent past.

Under these conditions, even if some dinosaur or other Mesozoic vertebrate’s remains had been preserved they would have been destroyed as a result of these geological processes. However, there are some dinosaur and marine reptile fossils associated with Ireland. One of our members of staff is certain that they once read about a dinosaur trackway being found on a coastal site in the north of the island. Some fragmentary dinosaur fossilised remains have been found in Lower Jurassic strata in County Antrim.

As for marine reptiles, leviathans of the age of reptiles like the Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs some fossil material has been found, again associated with localities on the coast of County Antrim, but these fossils are extremely fragmentary and very rare.

The Concavenator is a relatively newly discovered addition to the dinosaur kingdom. Found in Spain this dinosaur had a number of specific features that makes it truly unique.

Living in the early Cretaceous period, around 130 million years ago, Concav, as we are now going to refer to them, was a medium-sized meat-eating dinosaur. A fully grown adult would have been roughly 20 feet long and weighed in at around 2 to 3 tons. Concav’s were a part of the carcharondontosaurian family, which isn’t the easiest word to pronounce.

Concav, had two standout features which have generated a lot of interest from experts around the world. The first was the two unusual vertebrae in front of their hips which would have looked like a small pointed crest and it has been suggested that this would have supported a large hump. Typically for dinosaur recreations there has been alternative theories as to the purpose of the crest / hump. The standard views are that this was used as a display feature in courtship, with the potential of multiple colours shimmering on a sail, or that it was in fact used to simply regulate body temperature. The second, and perhaps more important feature of this dinosaur was the amazing structures on their forearm’s that resemble quill knobs.

Quill knobs are usually associated with birds, however some theropods, such as Velociraptor also shared these structures and it is theorised, and generally accepted, that such dinosaurs were the distant relations to modern-day birds. It’s important to note that most dinosaurs died out in a probable meteorite hit to the earth, which mean Tyrannosaurus Rex along with many other dinosaurs are not related to modern-day birds. Until Concavenator was found it was not known that dinosaurs from that distant period had such features and it could mean that the evolution of dinosaur to bird started a lot earlier than previously thought. There is a lot of scepticism with regard to this theory and many experts believe these structures were in fact not quill knobs, however there hasn’t yet been a proper analysis to support one theory or the other.

Concavenator has surprised many experts and it only goes to prove how little we have yet to learn about dinosaurs. There are some great images of Concav recreations which can be found in dinosaur books and on-line. The brand Safari have created a brilliant model that is worth a look.

Fossilised Footprints Reveal Speedy Dromaeosaurs

There are two main types of fossil – trace fossils and body fossils. Body fossils, as the name suggests preserve something of the bodily remains of organisms. Typical body fossils consist of bones, shells, eggs, leaves and such like, or their impressions in the encasing sediment. Trace fossils are distinct from body fossils as they preserve evidence of the activity of the organism. Typical trace fossils are borings, burrows, trails and of course foot prints.

Footprints Preserved

An individual dinosaur footprint can provide a considerable amount of information to an ichnologist (a scientist specialising in the study of footprints and tracks), however, much more data can be obtained if a set of prints, a trackway of an animal is preserved. Although it can be difficult to associate a particular genus or even a family to a set of prints (unless of course the maker of the prints is found preserved as a fossil at the end of the tracks), scientists can tell a lot about the movement of the animal, even an estimate of the speed of travel can be made.

Dromaeosaur Track Way

Palaeontologists have the opportunity to study a set of well-preserved dinosaur footprints that have been found in south-east Asia. The tracks,as they preserve the traces of just two clawed toes on each hind foot, indicate a biped that run on just two toes. Palaeontologists have postulated that the footprints were made by Dromaeosaurs (raptors), which ran with their “killing claw” of the second toe raised off the ground.

The trackway has been found in the Haman Formation in South Korea, the tracks consist of 14cm prints, two toes per print with each digit have four concentric pads terminating in a sharp, prominent claw.

Curved Toe Claws

The sharp and very strongly curved claw was held off the ground surface as these dinosaurs moved about. This was to prevent the claw from becoming blunted with repeated contact with the ground that the dinosaur was running on. This suggests that the enlarged toe claw had an offensive function, perhaps being used to attack prey. This theory has been proposed by the Korean and American based research team.

Formula Used to Calculate Speed

Using a mathematical formula developed in the 1970s scientists are able to speculate that the height of the animal at the hips would be approximately 5 times the footprint length. With this formula (developed by Alexander (1976)), the speed of the animal can be determined by measuring the hip height and the length of the stride. The American team who have published the paper on the footprints, estimate that this little dinosaur was moving at around 18 kmh. Other studies, based on comparative studies with extant animals (animals living today) and computer models indicate that these Dromaeosaurs were capable of running at much faster speeds.

A team of scientists from Manchester University used modelling techniques to compare the maximum running speeds of several types of dinosaurs with emus, ostriches and other extant animals and birds. In their report, Velociraptor (a typical Dromaeosaur) was estimated to have a top speed of nearly 40 kmh. Perhaps the footprints in Korea represent one of these dinosaurs trotting along.

An example of the work of icnologists and their contribution to our knowledge of dinosaurs has just been published in the scientific journal “Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology”. A team of American scientists have been studying the fossil trackway left by a small Theropod dinosaur, in South Korea, they have concluded that this little animal was trotting along at approximately 18 kmh, about as fast as a professional footballer can run.

“Running Dromaeosaurs”

The trackway studied consists of a series of prints made by a two-toed dinosaur. This type of print is characteristic of a Dromaeosaur, a small group of bipedal, active meat-eating dinosaurs such as Velociraptor and Deinonychus. This little carnivore, estimated to be around 65cm high at the hips, was moving in a straight line, parallel to a lake. Although the genus cannot be identified, scientists are confident that this is a Dromaeosaur as the big-toe on the three-toed hind foot, would be held off the ground to protect its sickle claw as the animal ran. It is apt that the trackway was made by a Dromaeosaur, as this word derived from the Greek means “running dinosaurs”.