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113 million
year old Dinosaur Tracks in the Paluxy River bed.
US Highway 67 to FM 205
for 4 miles to Park Road 59; then one mile to the park headquarters |
Dinosaur
Valley State Park -
Dinosaur
Tracks on the Banks of the Paluxy River
From
The Plight of the Pleurocoeleus by
Clay Coppedge
"... Near Glen
Rose, at the appropriately named Dinosaur Valley State Park, on the banks
of the Paluxy River and in the riverbed itself, are some remarkably well preserved
Pleurocoeleus tracks. These are some of the best dinosaur tracks in the world,
which is why paleontologists love the park and have ever since Roland T. Bird
of the American Museum of Natural History visited the site in 1938. Bird realized
that a set of double tracks showed a herbivorous sauropod —most likely our boy,
the Pleurocoeleus — being chased by a meat-eating carnosaur. |
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This was the first
time sauropod tracks had been discovered anywhere in the world, which caused no
small amount of excitement back in New York. The Glen
Rose tracks were duly sent to New York and displayed at the American Museum
of Natural History. The Pleurocoeleus obviously couldn't get away from the site
fast enough on that particular day, but since then its tracks have been scattered
hither and yon, to the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin
and, unfortunately, into the private residences of many amateurs, or vandals,
depending on how you look at these things.
The dinocaur tracks are a
major wonder but it’s a small wonder that any tracks are left here at all. People
complain that all the “good” tracks have been removed from the Paluxy River valley.
A woman in Glen
Rose told me that a lot of area families have a quarried dinosaur track or
two in their homes. “You usually see them on people’s living room wall,” she said.
It took a special set of circumstances to preserve the tracks for all these
millions of years. Scientists believe that a violent storm blew across the shoreline
a few days before the tracks were made and created a series of sand and lime-laden
mudflats. A herd of Pleurocoeleus came ambling across the sticky and still-wet
mud in search of a primordal salad, followed in interested pursuit by the carnosaurs
looking for some fresh sauropods; the Pleurocoeleus qualified.
True
to their pacifistic nature, the Pleurocoeleus tried to run away but we don't know
if they won that particular footrace or not. No intact skeleton remains were ever
found, just huge saucer-like depressions from their hind feet and smaller tracks,
much like horseshoes, from their front legs.
The primal, existential
struggle for food and survival was preserved in stone when the seashore turned
to stone, leaving behind the rocks we see in the park today, including the ones
with the dinosaur prints... more"
Glen
Rose Hotels - Book Your Hotel Here & Save
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Dinosaur
Valley State Park? You can't miss it!
Photo courtesy William
Beauchamp, July 2009 |
Dinosaur
Tracks - William Beauchamp provides scale
Photo courtesy William
Beauchamp, July 2009 | |
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