The Cretaceous Dinosaur Runway

Dr. Samuel Adamson and team recently discovered a "Cretaceous Dinosaur Runway" where dinosaurs ran to escape the waters of the Genesis Flood.

An amazing paleontological discovery has recently taken place on the outskirts of Moshcops, Utah, not too far from Animal Adventures Inc. (AAI.) The discovery? How about a full-scale dinosaur trackway over what is now desert? When I heard about the discovery, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I, went to the site to get an exclusive interview with the head of the team responsible for “digging up” the discovery: Dr. Samuel Adamson, the head paleontologist at Animal Adventures Institute at AAI. Dr. Adamson is quoted for saying, “There are a number of ways we can know about those extinct creatures otherwise known as dinosaurs. The most famous way is through fossils – stone copies of long dead bones. It's . . . [quite] easy to forget that these were once living animals.” He went on to explain that fossils are helpful in determining the size, age, weight and etc. of the creature in question, but most times, they don't tell you anything about their behavior. That's why trace fossils are so important. Trace fossils are fossils that aren't actual dinosaur bones, such as fossilized skin and skin imprints, eggs and nests, and of course, dinosaur footprints. The recent footprint discovery represents nearly 100 feet of dinosaur action – a snapshot of what was happening during the time when they were alive. “The fossil trackway was recently uncovered thanks to the unseasonal rain we've been having,” says Dr. Adamson. “It was discovered just last Friday by an 18-year old named Timothy Simmons, who was taking his dog, Sparky, on a walk at the time. So he gave us a call and we came over to investigate. At the moment, the rest of the dig team and I are just uncovering the dirt, rock and sand that wasn't uncovered by rain from around the footprints.” When asked what exactly was happening with the trackways, Dr. Adamson replied, “Well, as you all know, dinosaur footprints were formed during the Genesis Flood (described in Genesis chapter 5-8) around 4,350 years ago by dinosaurs that were trying to escape the horrific and catastrophic floodwaters.” Then, we asked the paleontologist how on earth the Flood could have preserved fossil footprints. “I actually get asked that question a lot,” he says. “What a lot of people don't know about the Flood is that the water didn't rise simultaneously all over the planet. No way! The water – most of which coming from the 'fountains of the great deep' as the Bible explains, but also from the torrential downpour – rose higher in certain places thanks to factors such as the tide. Sometimes, the water would temporarily fall and leave behind sandbars. Dinosaurs and other animals, trying to escape the running water, would have fled to higher ground within their environments and would end up being left on the sandbars as the water continued to rise, leaving their footprints in the soft sediment.” Dr. Adamson continued to explain that, “The type of sediment on the sandbars would have been different than the sediment in the muddy floodwater, so when the sandbars were covered with water again, they'd preserve the footprints perfectly.” Wow! Why don't they normally portray Noah's Flood like that in many Sunday Schools? Anyway, back on topic! After telling Daniel and I about how fossil dinosaur footprints were formed during the Flood, Dr. Samuel and his wife, Indiana Adamson, took us on a little tour of the trackway site. The sight was amazing! Dinosaur tracks – probably from many tens of individuals, if not many more – quite literally littered the ground. There were many different types of dinosaurs that made these tracks, but they appeared to all be heading in the same direction – they were trying to escape the Flood. “We have quite a few different species of dinosaurs here,” says Indiana. She told me that a nearby geological rock formation bearing dinosaur fossils was nearby and knowing the dinosaurs that lived there would help the paleontologists guess what species of dinosaurs the footprints belonged to. “Let's see,” says Indiana, “. . . if you look at this large footprint here . . . I think this is from a member of the ceratopsid, or horned dinosaur, family. Now there were quite a few different species of ceratopsians in this part of Utah. Some prime examples would be Diabloceratops, Torosaurus and a newly discovered species, Nasutoceratops. Nasutoceratops was a weird dude! Instead of your typical Triceratops-like horns, this dinosaur had no nose horn and the two horns above its eyes looked a bit like the ones you'd find on a bull!” Then Indiana showed us some more footprints – these footprints were almost bird-like in appearance, but they were quite blunt. Indiana said, “These prints are probably from a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur. In the Kaiparowits formation nearby, we can find the remains of hadrosaurs such as Gryposaurus. This was a herd of hadrosaurs running with the herd of ceratopsians in the same direction. Though they were trying to escape the waters of the Genesis Flood, they might have been running from something else as well.” This was when the married scientists showed us the trackways of what appeared to be four theropods – predatory dinosaurs. It appeared as if the predators were pursuing the herd – based on the distance between the tracks, the dinosaurs were mostly likely running. “This is probably a member of the tyrannosaur family,” Dr. Adamson explained. “A large tyrannosaur such as Teratophoneus would fit the bill nicely. Teratophoneus is actually a recently discovered tyrannosaur and since there's more than one set of tyrannosaur footprints here, they were probably working as a pack to single out a member of the herd of hadrosaurs and ceratopsians.” As if this weren't enough predators, the two scientists also pointed out the tracks of a bunch of smaller theropods. Based on the fact that they were two-toed footprints, they were not tyrannosaur tracks, but the tracks of a smaller dinosaur such as Troodon. This was a busy scene! “It's still a bit early to tell if there's more fossil footprints or even fossil bones nearby,” says Dr. Adamson, “but what we can be sure of, is that the more we uncover, the greater our understanding of dinosaurs will be. I can't wait to find more!”

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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