Presenter: Conner Bennett
Authors: Conner Bennett
Faculty Advisor: Jerry Harris
Institution: Dixie State University
In November 2018, a team of researchers from the National Park Service and the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site documented fossil vertebrate tracks at the Andre’s Alcove Tracksite (AAT) in the Lower Jurassic (190-185 Mya) Navajo Sandstone in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The tracks at the AAT were photo-documented for photogrammetric processing using Agisoft Photoscan Professional to enable the track surface to be studied remotely. Ichnotaxa already identified at the AAT include those of small ornithischian dinosaurs (Anomoepus),theropod dinosaurs (Grallator,Eubrontes), and protosuchian crocodylomorphs (Batrachopus). Project goals include: (1) the creation of three-dimensional models of each area at the AAT; (2) the study of surface features,rendered from three-dimensional models; and (3) the analysis of track-maker dynamics as revealed in the preserved fossil tracks. Vertebrate fossils are rarer in the Navajo Sandstone than in underlying, earlier Jurassic strata; the AAT site therefore provides important insights into late Early Jurassic vertebrate diversity and behaviors in the American Southwest.