Noah's Ravens: Interpreting the Makers of Tridactyl Dinosaur Footprints (Life of the Past)

656 Pages·2018·339.28 MB·English

by  James O. Farlow, Dan I. Coroian, Philip J. Currie

Noah’s Ravens
LIFE OF THE PAST James O. Farlow, editor
NOAH’S R AVENS
Interpreting the Makers of Tridactyl Dinosaur Footprints
JA MES O. FARLOW
With Contributions by DAN COROIAN
and PHILIP J. CURRIE
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press The paper used in this publication meets
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1320 East 10th Street Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
iupress.indiana.edu Manufactured in the United States of America
© 2018 by James O. Farlow Cataloging information is available
All rights reserved from the Library of Congress.
No part of this book may be reproduced or ISBN 978-0-253-02725-2 (hdbk.)
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic ISBN 978-0-253-03716-9 (web PDF)
or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information 1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
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Contents
C
vii Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Noah’s Ravens
1 Intraspecific and Interspecific Variability in
10 Pedal Phalangeal and Digital Dimensions and Proportions in
Non-avian Dinosaurs, Birds, and Crocodylians
2 Pedal Shape and Phylogenetic Relationships
44
3 Toe-Tapering Profiles in Non-avian
67 Dinosaurs and Ground Birds
With Contributions by Dan Coroian
4 Ontogenetic and Across-Species Trends in
90 Hindfoot and Hindlimb Proportions
With Contributions by Philip J. Currie
5 Intraspecific Variability in Pedal Size and
111 Shape in Alligator mississippiensis
6 Footprints of the Emu (Dromaius
146 novaehollandiae) and Other Ground Birds
7 Summing Up the Comparative Analyses
000
8 Noah’s Ravens: Interpreting the Makers of Tridactyl
000 Dinosaur Footprints of the Newark Supergroup,
Early Jurassic, Eastern North America
000 Final Thoughts 000
000 References
000 Appendix

Acknowledgments
A
I have benefited over the years from the assis- As will be apparent in the chapters that follow, I owe a
tance, access to specimens (or data or art), hospitality and/ great debt to many “libraries” of biodiversity, the zoos and
or logistical support, and/or wise counsel of numerous in- natural history museums with whose denizens and speci-
dividuals, some of whom are now deceased, but not forgot- mens I have worked. I especially want to thank the staff of
ten. I thank Laura Abraczinskas, Thomas Adams, David and the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, in Indiana, where for several
Margaret Akers, Herculano Alvarenga, Don Baird, Billy Paul years I routinely collected footprints of emus. I could not
and Pam Baker, Matteo Belvedere, Mike Brett-Surman, Dan have asked for greater cooperation and assistance with my
Brinkman, Lisa Buckley, Pierre Bultynck, Ralph Chapman, research than I received from Mark Weldon and other zoo
Sandra Chapman, Luis Chiappe, Walter Coombs, Raymond personnel.
Coory, Tim Corey, Rodolfo Coria, Nick Czaplewski, Ann I am also grateful to a more literal library, specifically
Darrow, Ben Dattilo, Kyle Davies, Lisa Davis, Federico De- the interlibrary loan section at Indiana University–Purdue
grange, Carl Denham, Everett and Carolyn Deschner, Sarah University Fort Wayne (now Purdue University Fort Wayne),
Doyle, Jack Driscoll, Ruth Elsey, Annelise Folie, Jed Freels, whose staff helped me track down many an old and/or ob-
Georges Gand, Jose García-Ramos, Rob Gaston, Steve Gate- scure publication.
sy, Patrick Getty, Whit Gibbons, Gerard Gierlin´ski, Brian This research has been supported by grants from the
Gill, David Gillette, Tammy Gordon, Tim Hamley, Øvind American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund,
Hammer, Amy Henrici, Tom Holtz, Jack Horner, Jim Kirk- American Philosophical Society, Dinosaur Society, Indiana
land, Richard Krueger, Glen Kuban, Cory Kumagai, Wann University, Purdue University Fort Wayne (and the late Patri-
Langston, Peter Larson, Young-Nam Lee, Giuseppe Leon- cia Farrell in particular), the National Geographic Society,
ardi, Martin Lockley, Andy Main, Anthony Maltese, Cliff and the National Science Foundation.
and Row Manuel, Rich McCrea, Jack McIntosh, Carl Meh- Annette Richter and Peter Falkingham read the entire
ling, Christian Meyer, Cliff Miles, Colin Miskelly, Ralph manuscript, rescuing me from an embarrassing number of
Molnar, George Mustoe, Andrea Oettl, Paul Olsen, John bloopers and infelicities of expression, and offering many
Ostrom, Frank Paladino, Greg Paul, Felix Pérez-Lorente, constructive criticisms. I greatly appreciate this service, and
Laura Piñuela, Raymond Pippert, Philip Powell, Emma hope that their efforts were reasonably painless! Bob Sloan,
Rainforth, Alan Resetar, Nathan Robinson, John Ruben, Alan Bower, Gary Dunham, and Peggy Solic of Indiana Uni-
Paul Sereno, Kirby Siber, Boyd Simpson, Jana Sizemore, versity Press assisted at various stages in the development of
Matt Smith, Mark Staton, Cub Stephens, Glenn Storrs, Ce- this book, sometimes forcing changes on me about which I
cilia Succar, Clarence Tennis, Alan Tennyson, Cotter Tha- initially grumbled, but later appreciated.
rin, Tony Thulborn, Doug Townsend, Kate Wellspring, Jim Most of all, I thank my wife, Karen. She has put up with
Whitcraft, Trevor Worthy, Joanna Wright, Yvonne Zubovic, my absences during field work and research trips to countless
and Kristof Zyskowski. It was a particular pleasure to work museums, and occasionally with interesting things “tempo-
with Dan Coroian and Phil Currie on the two chapters of rarily” stored in our home freezer. I can express my apprecia-
the book that they coauthored. There may be others whose tion for her no better than by quoting an ancient source of
names have slipped from my memory, and if so, I apologize. wisdom: “A woman’s beauty lights up a man’s face, and there
I was assisted in my zoo and laboratory work by student is nothing he desires more. If kindness and humility mark
research assistants, most notably Jana (McClain) Benson and her speech, her husband is more fortunate than other men”
Kate Shearer. They put up with countless hours of mud, bad- (Sirach 36: 27–28, New Revised Standard Version).
tempered big birds, and tedious tracing and measurement of
footprint shapes.
vii

Noah’s Ravens