"Scientists Reconstruct Dinosaur Chase in 3-D" Topic

"More than 110 million years ago, two dinosaurs—a long-necked, herbivorous sauropod and a carnivorous therapod—ran through the mud of an ancient river bed near what is now Glen Rose, Texas. Their tracks, preserved in rock, were excavated in 1940 and removed from the riverbed to be studied. Though a third of the trackway was subsequently lost, scientists this week announced they have managed to reconstruct the scene of the prehistoric chase in its entirety, using photographs from the original excavation and a cutting-edge form of technology known as photogrammetry.

In 1940, when American paleontologist Roland T. Bird first discovered and excavated the dinosaur chase site—part of a larger site called the Paluxy River Trackway–he found that some of the therapod tracks were actually inside the sauropod tracks. This led Bird and other scientists to conclude that the meat-eating therapod (a top predatory group that includes Tyrannosaurus rex) was chasing the sauropod. Removed from the Paluxy River bed and divided into blocks, the tracks were taken to different locations for study, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Texas Memorial Museum.

Though some of the blocks (representing about a third of the trackway) have since been lost, a team of scientists has been able to achieve extraordinary results by turning to photographs taken by Bird during the 1940 excavation. According to an article published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, the scientists analyzed 17 of Bird's photographs using a technique known as photogrammetry. After determining the angle from which each photo was taken, they melded views from different camera angles to build a digital model of the chase site with three-dimensional depth. By comparing the photographs with Bird's hand-drawn map of the site, the scientists have reconstructed the entire 148-foot (45-meter) chase for the first time since its removal from the site…"
Full article here.
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Amicalement
Armand

Very cool.

Glad you enjoyed the article my friend.

Amicalement
Armand