Dinosaur Tracks

The tracks in this area show there was a large number of dinosaurs in the area and probably balanced between predators and prey. The social behavior of the dinosaurs deducted from these tracks is some of the most complete evidence to date.

The Sauropod tracks (Bronosaur, Apatosaur, Brontopod, Parabrontopodus) show the same herding social bonding as shown by Roland Bird with the Texas tracks and moire recently, from parallel Sauropod tracks in Europe.

There are a significant number of parallel trackways heading west in not only a herd formation but in a migratory path, made by 5 individuals of the same type and size. The tracks indicate they were sub adults of juveniles, being half the size (half the stride length) of the largest known Brontosaurs.

Newspaper clipping of Betty Jo Riddenoure with the dinoaur track find attributed to her. She said her father and his friend (pictured) found them in 1935, and were known to locals since the 1920s. Known originally (with the white settlers) as "Rock Crossing" or "Elephant Crossing", the first scientific expedition to the tracks was in 1936 after Betty Jo told her science teacher, Don Hayes.

Complete map of visable Dinosaur tracks

Large Crocodilian Scute, a bony part of the skin, collected from songlomerate at the base of the Bell Ranch Formation.

In 2001 a survey was made of the Purgatory Rive4r valley and 12 locations were found where sinosaur bones were on teh surface, weathering out of the MOrrison Formation. Among them was this Sauropod Ischium, a rear hip bone, probably from a Camarasaurus.

56 rounded, polished Gastroliths regurgitated by large plant eating dinosaurs, like Brontosaurs, which are used in the gizzard to grind seeds and high cellulose, the insoluable fiber of branches and stems, just like modern birds.

The erosion of the track site, completely unprotected, is destroying the site TODAY. The undercutting of the limestone layers causes the tracks to break off and fall into the Purgatory River. Without the Army bombing this site, it will disappear in a few years, without additional protections.

Major sections of these tracks have been lost due to the erosion of the annual flooding and river flows, at the rate of several feet per decade. Weathering by visitors, cattle, freeze-thaw cycles, and such are a continuing threat to the tracks. The solutions are difficult and expensive, but in 1990 the Congress passed Pulic Law 101-510 which transfered 16,700 acres from the Army back to the Forest Service, in an attempt to establish a management plan to protect these invaluable tracks.

The plan was completed in 1994, and mandates the protection and conservation of the tracks by removing the non-native Tamarisk, redirecting the stream flow, prohibiting the collection or casting of tracks without permission, conducting a complete scientific record of the site, and educating the public on the value of the tracksite.

Photogrammetry, aerial photgraphy, cataloguing, making molds, and removing some threatened tracks are all ongoing conservation efforts in the area.