SALT LAKE CITY, July 24 (UPI) -- Tracks have been discovered of small rat-like creatures who ran over dunes in Utah 190 million years ago, paleontologists said.
The prehistoric footprints were found earlier this month in Dinosaur National Monument by Dan Chure, a paleontologist with the National Park Service, and George Engelmann, a paleontologist with the University of Nebraska, Omaha.
"Its an amazing find," said Chure, who also found the fossilized trail of a scorpion tail near the tiny mammal tracks, which number in the hundreds.
This is the fourth consecutive summer Chure and Engelmann have spent exploring the monument's Glen Canyon Formation. Now they're hoping to find tiny skeletons to match the tracks, which are about the size of a dime, the paleontologists told The Salt Lake Tribune in a story published Friday.
"A few are so well preserved that individual toe impressions can be seen," Engelmann said, adding he could tell the tiny mammals had been walking uphill because their heel imprints were more distinct than their toes.
