Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Continent's oldest bird tracks are found

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 23, 2005 at 4:17 PM
Advertisement

DENVER, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- University of Colorado scientists say they have found fossilized bird tracks in the Cedar Mountains near Moab, Utah, that are 125 million years old.

That means the discovery represents the North American continent's oldest existing bird tracks, the Salt Lake City Deseret News reported. The sandstone slates containing the tracks will eventually be displayed at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

Utah's state paleontologist, James Kirkland, said the tracks "date at the same age as one of the most important discoveries of this century in terms of dinosaurs and birds," a time of change among the Earth's creatures.

John Foster, curator of paleontology at the Museum of Western Colorado, agreed, saying, "To get much older than this, you have to go into the late Jurassic and the (bird) bones that have been discovered in Europe."

Joanna Wright from the University of Colorado-Denver, told the Deseret News it's difficult to determine what kind of feathered creatures made the tracks. "They were small, perhaps the size of shoreline birds we see along the Great Salt Lake," she said. "But we couldn't put them in a family of modern birds because they go back too far."

Topics: John Foster
© 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Science News Stories
1 of 32
Marilyn Monroe Cupcake Portrait at Madame Tussauds in New York
View Caption
A one-of-a-kind 8 x 4 foot portrait of Marilyn Monroe made from 2,100 bite sized stuffed cupcakes stands in the lobby next to her wax figure on the eve of Marilyn Monroe's 86th birthday at Madame Tussauds in New York City on May 31, 2012. UPI/John Angelillo
fark
Is being a 29-year-old virgin really an accomplishment? Click the number at right for commentary...
Britain's NHS recommends cutting daily alcohol intake to just 1/4 of a pint. In related news, London's...
Canadian body-parts mailer is a serial kitten-killer and was romantically linked to serial rapist-murderer...
CNN Panics over slump in ratings, considering a Total CNN package for $ 5 bucks a month
Chicago's Soldier Field will host the Superbowl, except for one thing. Nope, not that
Aussie truck driver's answer to the age-old question "How do you get a sheep to push back?"