A STUDY GUIDE by Andrew Fildes

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

ISBN-13-978-1-74295-063-1 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au The ultimate cold case - a murder that’s millions of years old and the only evidence?

Footprints!

Film credits: Production company: Prospero Productions Running time: 52 minutes

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2 Introduction How can we tell they were running? for answers to these questions and We can tell by the spacing of the others takes the researchers around Dinosaur Stampede is a whodunnit; tracks and the way that the claws the world – to Wyoming in the USA, the story of the hunt for a fearsome bit deeply into the mud. The fleeing Spain and to Scotland’s Isle of Skye. predator previously unknown in Aus- dinosaurs left the prints of a typical In these locations they study similar tralia. The forensic evidence is a set ornithopod but mixed with them were dinosaur tracks. Clever formulae are of tracks left in the mud of Western smaller tracks of little carnivores, used to calculate the size and speed Queensland over 100 million years coelurosaurs, which were animals the of the animals. High-tech LIDAR (Light ago. Scott Hocknull of the Queensland size of a chicken that lived on insects, Dectection and Ranging) imagery is Museum and Peter Falkingham of the frogs and other small prey. They were used to reveal the angle and direction University of Manchester set out to running as well. of the prints. solve the mystery. Using decades of research, the expertise of palaeontolo- What were they running from? The Evidence comes to light of previously gists around the world and advanced herbivores were quite big so it had undiscovered dinosaurs – big ones technology into dinosaur behaviour, to be something really big and scary. – in the same area. At least one is a they try to recreate the ‘scene of the The only clue is another set of prints large theropod predator, big enough to crime’ to find out more. – those of a typical big predator. So kill the ornithopod grazers. The bones what are the possibilities? When the had been hidden because they circu- The tracks at Lark Quarry were left 97 Lark Quarry tracks were discovered late through the soil, finally coming to million years ago when Australia was a there was no fossil evidence at all in the surface. Several are found on a colder, wetter place and the now-arid Australia of large predators such as local property and provide hard evi- plains of Western Queensland were giant theropods, like the infamous Ty- dence of some of the running animals rich with swamps and lakes. At some rannosaurus. But the prints are clear, for the first time. point, a herd of dinosaurs crossed a large and show long claws. mudflat and left a clear set of tracks After examining all the evidence, the – clear enough for us to draw some Is it possible that the fleeing herd of researchers reach a carefully consid- quite exciting conclusions. For a start, ornithopods were under attack by a ered conclusion. Although the smaller they were running – fast. There are big theropod, intent on a kill? Or might dinosaurs running in panic are known many examples of dinosaur tracks the different animals have crossed only from trace remains, the killer is around the world but the Lark Quarry at different times? Why are all the now identified as one of the most find seems to be the only one where little carnivores hanging out with the fearsome hunters ever to roam the the tracks suggest that the dinosaurs herd? Exactly what kind of animals Australian landscape. were moving at speed. were they; how big were they; how fast were they running? The search

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 3 The cast

Herbivorous ornithopod – Wintonopus latomorum

Small carnivorous coelurosaur – Skartopus australis

Large carnivorous theropod – Australovenator wintonensis Ornithopods (drawing by John Conway) (No bones of Wintonopus or Skartopus found – only trace Quick notes evidence.)

Other Winton bones confirmed: Ornithopods (‘bird foot’) Wintonotitan wattsi – ‘Clancy’, a The grazing animals of the later periods of dinosaurs, the large ornithopods titanosaur (massive herbivore). usually had three toes, like a bird, and were also bird hipped. They were mostly Titanosaurs were up to sixteen quadrupeds with curved spines, although they could run on their back legs. metres long and weighed ten to They were found in slow-moving herds like modern large grazing mammals. fifteen tonnes; they are the larg- They had no armour beyond a thick skin and developed large horny beaks est land animals that ever lived. for grazing and browsing. Their only real defence was to herd together and to Clancy is a long but rather skinny run fast when necessary. A typical ornithopod was the Iguanodon, which has member of the titanosaur family. featured in several recent films. Diamantinasaurus matildae – Typically their hind foot tracks (pes) are as wide as they are long, and show ‘Matilda’, a very large sauropod blunt claws for gripping, not ripping. herbivore

N.B. A fore/front footprint is a ‘manus’ and a hind footprint is a ‘pes’. These terms come from the Latin words for hand and foot.

Theropods (‘beast foot’)

Theropods were three-toed carnivores with large claws. Typically, their footprints are longer than they are wide and show well-defined, long claws (talons). The theropods ranged in size from the chicken-sized, insect-eating coelurosaurs in the film to the medium-sized Velociraptors up to the huge Tyrannosaurus. They were bipedal and often had stunted, almost useless forearms, relying on huge back legs for speed and massive jaws or back- foot talons for seizing and killing.

Modern birds evolved from the small theropods in the Jurassic era and they shared some bird-like features such as wishbones, air-filled bones and in Allosaurus fossil with ‘victim’ some cases, feathers adapted from scales. Birds still have scales on their legs.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 4 (Creative Commons)

T. Tischler, Australian Age of Dinosaurs, Museum of Natural History, Winton, Queensland.

The guilty party - Banjo • What is the difference between the • Why are just a few bones lying on tracks of an ornithopod (herbivore) the surface of their property? What Australovenator was a medium-sized and a theropod (hunter)? happens to the bones? allosauroid. According to Hocknull, it was two metres tall at the hip and six • What can we tell about an animal • What was the first big fossil that metres long. Because it was a light- from its fossilised footprints? they identified? (A Titanosaur – weight predator, he refers to it as the Matilda) ‘cheetah of its time’. Like other car- • Why does Hocknull use the term nosauria, Australovenator would have ‘the Cinderella syndrome’? What • What was the predator they found been a bipedal carnivore. However, might this mean? there? (A theropod – Australovena- as a member of the Allosaurus family, taur wintonensis, aka ‘Banjo’) it had extremely well-developed front • What is the hallux? What group of legs and claws for killing. It has been animals have this feature? • Why was it originally thought to nicknamed Banjo, after the Australian be too small to be the Lark Quarry poet A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson. • What do we learn about dino- predator? saur behaviour from the Scottish Viewing questions tracks? (Mix of species; Theropods • What special feature of its foot once formed family groups) again makes it a ‘prime suspect’? • How do we know that the ‘predator’ footprints were left by a killer • What do we learn about them from carnivore? Couldn’t it just have the Red Gulch, Wyoming deposit? been a small dinosaur with big (Small theropods searched the feet? beach for food – dead fish and similar) • Why is it so hard to find fossil skeletons or other remains of • What is LIDAR? What two words dinosaurs in Australia? What is might the name be made from? so unusual about the Australian What does it reveal? landscape? • How fast were the dinosaurs run- • Some paleoarchaeologists study ning at Lark Quarry? Is that fast? marks, tracks and signs; they are How fast was the big theropod called paleoichnologists. Some running? biologists still do this with living animals; they examine the marks • Who are Dave and Judy Elliot and of an animal’s passing. Why is this what did they find? useful?

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 5 Discussion questions

• One important thing that the trackways around the world tell us is that large dinosaur carnivores lived in family groups and herds of grazing dinosaurs had small carnivores living with and among them. Can you think of any modern equivalents to these behaviours, among mammals? Why are these good survival strategies?

• Small, bird-like dinosaurs are said in the documentary to have ‘gracile’ feet and toes. What does this mean and why do the bigger animals have very different feet? (think small ground birds and emus!)

• What physical similarities can you see between small dinosaurs and birds?

• What is the hallux? What type of dinosaur has it and why do you think that it shows in their tracks? What might its purpose be? (grasping prey?)

• At first the hunter-killer found near Lark Quarry, ‘Banjo’, seems too small to have made the big predator footprints in the trackway. How do Drs Hocknull and Falkingham prove that it is Banjo who is responsible? (think Cinderella)

• Does this non-typical case cast doubt on size calculations based on footprint size alone? Should the claw length be discounted in calculations?

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 6 Post-viewing activities

• Draw up a ‘wanted’ poster for the Lark Quarry killer. Include a picture of the perpetrator and a description of the crime, as well as a suitable reward.

• Using the government and Lark Quarry websites and fact sheets, draw the three types of footprints, make templates and cut out the footprints in three different colours to represent the animals. Blu Tack the paper footprints to the wall in a pattern that reflects the event. Discuss the appropriate position- ing of the prints, always bearing in mind the event you are trying to represent.

• The Lark Quarry trackway and the Winton museum are near the town of Winton in Queensland. Find it on a map. Where is it? How far is it from the nearest large city, Bris- bane? What is the local habitat? The museum (not the quarry) is built on a local feature called a ‘jump-up’. What is the proper geographical name for such a feature and how are they formed? (A mesa)

• There are difficulties in finding of fossils do they yield and of what dinosaurs died out. The link was fossils in Australian landscapes. age are the fossils? discovered in the mid 1800s in What are the problems? What are Germany with Archaeopteryx, a the other major sites in Australia? • Draw footprints of a standing, small dinosaur with feathers. The Research Riversleigh (Queens- walking and running dinosaur. How fossil is well preserved and the land) and Dinosaur Cove (Victoria). do the footprints change? To get feathers clear. Research the story Where exactly are they, what kind an idea, examine another student using the following links: doing these actions and look at the way that the foot makes contact http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ with the ground. How does the diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html foot contact and footprint shape change with activity? http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/ diapsids/avians.html • Like birds and mammals (including us) dinosaurs had a pentadactyl Explain why we know that it was (five-toed) limb. So why are there a stage between a dinosaur and only three toes showing? Look bird. Could it fly or just glide? Why carefully at the foot of a chicken would a dinosaur have developed and a dog to find the ‘missing’ feathers? (Feathers are modified toes (hint – with a dog, look for the scales – birds still have scaly legs. ‘dew’ claw). Hint: they may not have grown feathers for flying or even gliding at • We now accept that birds evolved first.) from small theropods long before

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 7 • Is this true for humans? Make some measurements from footprints. Trace bare footprints of class members and then try to work out who it might be from length alone. You will need to work out the ratio of hip height to total height as well and then estimate total height from the length of the footprint alone. How accurate is it? Is it a good way to estimate the size of a dinosaur or just the best guess that we can manage?

• What is the difference between a resting footprint, a walking footprint and a running footprint? (You Web resources could answer this partly by getting Australovenator has been nicknamed students to walk and run through ‘Banjo’. Details about his forearm very shallow mud and examining The federal government has a compre- and how it was used can be found at the resulting prints. Barefoot is hensive website devoted to the Lark . shoes too, especially flexible run- to upper-primary students but which ners.) is also suitable for junior secondary The Australian Age of Dinosaurs, Muse- students. There are a number of re- um of Natural History, Winton, including LIDAR seems like a blend of the words sources there and links to a wide range details and images of dinosaur fossils light and radar – it uses light beams of information on Australian dinosaurs in the Winton area: instead of radio frequencies. But it is in general. short for LIght Detection And Rang- http://aaodl.com ing (not RAdio DAR). In archaeology http://www.environment.gov.au/ it is used to reveal small variations in heritage/places/national/dinosaur http://aaodl.com/dino-hub.php the ground that might indicate buried -stampede/lark-quarry/lark-quarry.html buildings and roads, for instance. This is known as microtopology. The use of The site includes animations of the Calculating animal size it to reveal the exact three-dimensional three dinosaurs involved in the story and speed shape of the tracks is quite imaginative. (Shockwave required). Some of the information appears to be slightly out of date compared to the documentary It is possible to calculate the size of a Related questions – the big theropod is not named as dinosaur (and other animals) using the Australovenator and is not said to be size of the footprint. The distance from • How can we tell that these animals running (information confirmed by the the hip to the ground is approximately had a long, stiff tail, held out LIDAR scans). four to five times the length of the foot. behind them in the air? If we know the general structure of the The Lark Quarry exhibit has its own animal from fossils or related species, • How can we tell that they ran website at . It includes free bulk of the animal can be made. any of these animals have left a downloads of activity booklets, fact ‘manus’ – a front footprint? In what sheets and resources for those who are Once we have the hip height, we can circumstances? unable to visit. estimate the speed of movement from just three footprints, looking at the • What is the difference between One of the original excavators, Dr distance between them. The further a back footprint and a fore/front Andrew Rozefelds, visited dur- apart they are, the faster the animal footprint? (pes and manus – foot ing filming. His own video can be was running. This distance is different and hand). found at . It includes biped or a quadruped; a mammal, a • What does the LIDAR scan show film of the Winton dinosaur museum lizard or a large dinosaurian. that was not obvious before and the fossil bone recovery procedure. through simple observation?

Paleontology refers to the study of ancient, prehistoric life through the study and interpretation of remains like fossils. One branch of this is paleoichnology, the study not of actual fossil bones but of fossil traces like footprints, body tracks, burrows and tunnels, nests and eggs, skin, fur, feathers, and scales that have been shed. This is particularly important in the Lark Quarry finds because although the killer has been identified, the ornithopod herbivore and the small coelurosaur carnivore are only known from their traces and not from fossil bones.

Some of the most interesting traces are gastroliths – ‘stomach stones’ – that dinosaurs and birds swallowed to help grind their food. They are often found, sometimes highly polished, among the fossil bones of plant-eating dinosaurs. Modern birds swallow stones to help grind up tough plants and grains in their crop or gizzard (stomach). Also dinosaur droppings – turds – were fossilised and give clues to their diet. They are called ‘coprolites’ – dung stones.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is -paleoichnology.htm

Coprolites

http://www.oceansofkansas.com/ coprolite.html

Gastroliths

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/ verts/archosaurs/gastroliths.php

Modern equivalents in biological and environmental studies – this is the primary text, which includes pictures of modern tracks and droppings of native and introduced animals:

Barbara Triggs, Tracks, Scats and Other Traces: A Field Guide to Austral- ian Mammals, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2004.

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 9 To analyse this we need to examine the evidence presented very closely. All the other track patterns in the world (with the possible exception of a set in China) show a simple and slow movement of animals. What exactly makes this trackway different and what tools and knowledge are brought to bear on the problem to support the hypothesis?

Topic questions

• The Lark Quarry case shows us how an archaeologist interprets the evidence to draw up a picture of a Related tasks of the voids with plaster and produced single event in the far distant past. casts of the dead residents and even Identify the points at which inter- their pets. pretations have been based on as- • Research gastroliths, coproliths or sumptions about dinosaur behav- other trace fossil remains. Report http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii iour and physical shape. What is on the details of dinosaur behav- (select or scroll down to ‘Rediscovery’) the evidence for each assumption? iour that these traces can offer Do you agree or are there other or prepare a poster or illustrated possible interpretations? PowerPoint presentation linking Close analysis of the film the traces to the animal that left as text and experimental • What justification is there for the them. record visits to the Isle of Skye, Spain and Wyoming, USA? What specific in- • Investigate the ‘tracks and signs’ formation is gained from each visit used in modern biology to tell The documentary takes the most that contributes to the understand- which animals are present in a dramatic possible interpretation of the ing of the Lark Quarry trackway? habitat. What evidence do animals events, raising the idea that it was a leave of their presence? What hunt where the theropod, identified • How is the drama and suspense does it tell us of their behaviours? eventually as the allosaurid Austral- achieved and maintained in the ovenator wintonensis, is depicted as a documentary? Pay attention to serial killer who has attacked a fleeing the pacing and organisation of the Casts mob of ornithopods. There are other material. possible interpretations – that the her- Some of the footprints are ‘natural bivores were running, accompanied by casts’ – they are not recessed but the small carnivores, for other reasons raised. This is because the original and that the bigger theropod crossed footprint was filled with a different their track at a later time, leaving its material and the fill was preserved, not own unrelated tracks. We cannot be the print. Demonstrate this by mak- sure whether the hunter was a fast ing bare or shoe footprints in ceramic runner or an ambush predator. There clay and then pouring plaster into it. is no trace evidence of a struggle to Remove the clay when the plaster has match the tracks to confirm a ‘kill’. set and you have a cast of a footprint. We need to ask what evidence sup- This technique is used in forensics to ports the dramatic interpretation, why preserve footprints at the scene of a the scientists have taken this view and crime. In Pompeii, the Roman town why the filmmaker has used the ‘hunt buried by a volcanic eruption, victims and kill’ and ‘crime’ aspects to anchor were buried in ash which then set the story. Is the interpretation valid or solid. The victims decayed away, leav- have the scientists and filmmakers ing human shaped ‘holes’ in the hard taken the most dramatic view to pro- ash layer. Archaeologists filled some mote their ideas and endeavours?

SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 10 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2011) ISBN-13-978-1-74295-063-1 [email protected] For more information on Screen Education magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit . Join ATOM’s email broadcast list for invitations to free screenings, conferences, seminars, etc. Sign up now at . For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies, visit .