Rare find shows dinosaurs interacting with mammals

"A slab of sandstone discovered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, contains at least 70 mammal and dinosaur tracks from more than 100 million years ago; according to a new paper published January 31 in the journal Scientific Reports. The find provides a rare glimpse of mammals and dinosaurs interacting."

Shows that Maryland's diverse ancient ecosystem, was a haven for creatures that loved Maryland's marshlands, as we currently love, respect and cherish the present ones.

This is great stuff, thanks for posting it! I have 2 of Lockley's books and he is very good at what he does. What he lacks is experience in tracking mammals, he shows a 5 toed track saying it's the size of a badger when it's actually much larger and closer to a wolverine in size. These tracks were likely deposited in a wetland area which was a major draw for all animals, I also suspect the small bi-pedal bird like animals may have tagged along with groups of large dinosaurs and picked off any small animals that ran from the oncoming giants.

a reply to: Erno86

Thanks for this! Amazing stuff to think about. Our crazy weasle-rat-racoon ancestors really were impressive! I wonder if it was hunting the small dinosaurs. I am imagining a savannah scene with the small dinosaurs filling the roles of birds and the large armored dinosaurs filling the roles of the large herbivores. Then there's our ancestor, terrorizing the wee dinos, chasing them among the massive feet of the sauropods.

Thanks again!

a reply to: Erno86

Sweet find, wow. There's a lot we still haven't discovered, and this is the tip of the iceberg.

As an avid outdoor enthusiast and fossil hunter here in Maryland...I highly recommend exploring the diverse ecosystem at Calvert Cliffs State Park...


dnr.maryland.gov...

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Birds do the same thing catching bugs stirred up by grazing cattle.

originally posted by: CharlesT
a reply to: Asktheanimals

Birds do the same thing catching bugs stirred up by grazing cattle.

Exactly. They may have also scavenged crushed invertebrates that got stepped on.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals

originally posted by: CharlesT
a reply to: Asktheanimals

Birds do the same thing catching bugs stirred up by grazing cattle.

Exactly. They may have also scavenged crushed invertebrates that got stepped on.

Yellow jackets do the same thing.

a reply to: Erno86

I watched a yellow jacket excise an impressive piece of mostly raw steak from a bone and fly off with it. I can't help but find a group of bugs and watch the world they live in. Wasps seem to be the scariest of them all, giant ground dwellers that can carry off bumble bees, black and white ones that will build a give the size of a fire hydrant in a few days. I live in Montana, so that's crazy for a local insect. I have a real love hate for wasps lol.

On topic of the thread, I'd imagine those of us speculating the behavior are all close in some respect. It shouldn't be surprising that the ways to go about life haven't changed in millions of years.