Crocodile Was Top Predator At Newly Opened Prehistoric Site In Colorado
Crocodile Was Top Predator At Newly Opened Prehistoric Site In Colorado
MORRISON, Colo., June 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The landlocked state known for its towering Rocky Mountains and sprawling plains once featured dramatically different landscapes as seen in its geological formations. One of the more astonishing prehistoric Colorado sites is in Morrison on Dinosaur Ridge.
科罗拉多州莫里森,2023年6月4日/美通社/--这个以高耸的落基山脉和绵延的平原而闻名的内陆国家,曾经在其地质构造中呈现出截然不同的风景。最令人惊叹的史前建筑之一科罗拉多州网站已进入莫里森在恐龙岭。
The section of hogback on Jefferson County Open Space land is where an ancient creek bed preserved in sandstone has been dubbed Crocodile Creek. Visitors can explore the site from a newly installed stairway and viewing platform, and from a paved roadway with interpretive signs written by paleontologists.
杰斐逊县开放空间土地上的驼背部分,就是在那里保存在砂岩中的一条古老的溪床,被称为鳄鱼溪。参观者可以从新安装的楼梯和观景台上探索该遗址,也可以从铺有古生物学家写下的解释性标志的道路上探索。
Crocodile Creek provides a particularly good example of sea level croc habitat in a now sloping dry tidal creek bed that has uplifted to a 6,000-foot elevation. More than 90 million years ago, fresh water flowed through this bed into what was then the coastline of a large interior seaway. Today's stone layers have an abundance of fossilized animal tracks including numerous parallel claw marks.
鳄鱼溪为海平面鳄鱼栖息地提供了一个特别好的例子,它现在是倾斜的干燥潮汐河床,已经上升到6000英尺高。9000多万年前,淡水通过这个河床流入当时的一个大型内陆海道的海岸线。今天的石层有大量的动物化石足迹,包括许多平行的爪印。
"Crocodile tracks are one of the most common tracks in the Dinosaur Ridge area, and in the Cretaceous-age Dakota Sandstone generally," said Dr. Martin Lockley, co-founder of the nonprofit Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, and world-renowned ichnologist and professor emeritus at University of Colorado Denver.
“鳄鱼的足迹是恐龙岭地区最常见的足迹之一,通常在白垩纪的达科他州砂岩中也是如此,”Dr。马丁·洛克利,非营利性组织恐龙岭之友的联合创始人,世界著名的生物学家和荣誉退休教授科罗拉多大学丹佛分校。
"Crocs had four toes on their hind feet, but often we see only the traces of the three longest toes," Dr. Lockley noted. "Often swim tracks are aligned in one direction because crocs were following a creek or moving with a current." The world's first fossilized crocodile tracks ever scientifically named were found near Golden, Colorado in the 1930s.
“鳄鱼的后脚有四个脚趾,但我们通常只看到最长的三个脚趾的痕迹,”洛克利博士指出。“因为鳄鱼沿着小溪或随水流移动,所以游泳道通常是朝一个方向排列的。”世界上第一批被科学命名的鳄鱼足迹化石在附近被发现科罗拉多州戈尔登在20世纪30年代。
Today crocodiles can only be found in south Florida in the U.S. and are protected as a threatened species. Crocs that once thrived in Colorado were smaller than full-grown crocs living in Florida, which can reach up to 20-feet in length.
今天只有在南方才能找到鳄鱼佛罗里达州在美国,并作为受威胁物种受到保护。曾经蓬勃发展的西红柿科罗拉多州比生活在这里的成年鳄鱼还小佛罗里达州,它的长度可达20英尺。
"Based to the largest tracks we can infer that the larger animals were 13-16 feet long," Dr. Lockley said. "Nonetheless, the larger crocs would have been fearsome, top predators in these habitats. Paleontologists think they would have ambushed unsuspecting dinosaurs, birds, and other creatures that strayed too close to the waterline."
“根据最大的足迹,我们可以推断,较大的动物有13到16英尺长,”洛克利博士说。尽管如此,体型较大的鳄鱼在这些栖息地是可怕的顶级捕食者。古生物学家认为,它们会伏击毫无戒备的恐龙、鸟类和其他离水线太近的生物。
Just south of Croc Creek visitors can see evidence of a dinosaur lek where mating rituals, like some modern birds perform, left theropod scrape marks in Cretaceous mud.
就在鳄鱼溪以南,游客可以看到恐龙粪便的证据,在那里,交配仪式,就像一些现代鸟类一样,在白垩纪的泥浆中留下兽脚类恐龙的刮痕。
CONTACT: Kristen Kidd, 3036816510, [email protected]
联系方式:克里斯汀·基德、3036816510、[受电子邮件保护]
SOURCE Friends of Dinosaur Ridge
恐龙岭的源友