U.S. government scientists and several outside paleontologists dispute the dinosaur track findings reported in this article.
"I have now visited the 'Dance Floor' locality and can say without doubt that the 'trampled' surface is nothing more than potholes," said Alan Titus, of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who is a paleontologist at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in nearby Kanab, Utah.
"The BLM is going to stop referring to the site as a fossil track site," he said.
Marjorie Chan, the University of Utah sedimentologist who co-authored the original study, will work with Titus and other scientists to investigate the area further.
"We came up with a different interpretation than the paleontologists, but we are open to dialogue and look forward to collaborating to resolve the controversy," she said.
"In the end, science is an evolving process where we seek the truth," she said. "Getting out in the field and looking at the site collectively is crucial."
At least four types of Jurassic dinosaurs left more than a thousand footprints and tail-drag marks at a remote site in northern Arizona, according to a new study.
About 190 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, the area was likely an oasis surrounded by a vast desert, researchers said.
"All these footprints at a watering hole might tell us something about the social life of the dinosaurs," said Marjorie Chan of the University of Utah.
Chan wonders which species might have mingled at this "dinosaur dance floor."
She co-authored the study with University of Utah graduate student Winston Seiler, who found the site in 2006.
(Related: "First Dinosaur Tracks Found on Arabian Peninsula" [May 20, 2008].)
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