A STUDY GUIDE by Andrew Fildes

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.

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