Forest Footprints

A light brown Brachiosaurus walks beside the fossil trackway, an exposed rocky patch of ground with blue tarps strewn around it. Several people walk around the fossil site. They are tiny in comparison to the Brachiosaurus. The dinosaur takes huge steps as it walks on all four legs. It’s enormous tail swings behind it as it turns its even longer neck to look at the people.

Richard: Footprints are found in a variety of depositional environments, and it’s just like any other thing. For footprints, modern footprints, you have a human footprint and you walk on certain substrates like sand or a mud, firm sand, wet sand. You name it.

Ariel view of a fossil track site, an exposed rocky patch of ground with blue tarps strewn around it. Several people sit on the ground looking at the tracks. The camera slowly pans over the length of the site.

Lisa: That footprint is gonna look different.

Richard: It is. Sometimes it’s not gonna look like much at all. You’re not even going to be able to see toes.

Silhouettes of a girl (1.3 metres tall) and a man (1.7 metres tall). The camera pulls out to reveal silhouettes of dinosaurs that increase in size. An ankylosaur 1.5 metres tall and 5.5 metres long. A therizinosaur 3 metres tall and 5 metres long. A medium theropod 3 metres tall and 8.5 metres long. A large theropod 3.5 metres tall and 10 metres long. A hardrosaur 4.75 metres tall and 9 metres long. A sauropod 15 metres tall and 18.5 metres long. Their footprint shapes are shown below them.

Three bird feet are lined up: a goose’s foot with small rounded claws and webbing between its toes; A black raven’s foot, small in comparison to the other two with pointy hooked claws; and an eagle’s foot with large talons and long pointy claws.

Ildiko: So one of the questions that I was asked today is: if I saw bird footprints, would I have an idea of what it liked to eat? And I would say very much. So I would know that if I saw webbing that this is a bird that preferred aquatic habitats, and that it’s probably a herbivore, a vegetarian, or an omnivore. If I saw the middle foot of the raven, I would know that this is a bird that likes to cling on branches, and again, it’s probably a generalist and likes to eat all sorts of things. But if I saw the eagle foot, I would see all the power, and I would know it’s a carnivore. My name is Ildiko Szabo. I’m the collections curator of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection here at the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

A woman with grey chest-length hair and glasses looks at the camera.

Aerial shot looking down at a greyish-brown rocky ground. There are several people sitting down. The camera slowly moves in getting closer to the ground. Holes in the ground become more noticeable. Eventually one takes up most of the frame and we see it is a big sauropod footprint.

Richard: When you study tracks and trackways, you’re seeing the actions of animals that were alive when they made those traces. So you’re getting a lot of an idea of how the animals used their anatomy, what other animals they’re walking around with, and what environments they were frequenting. And you know what kinds of behavior they had, whether they were traveling in groups or singly, or all kinds of things that you just can’t get from bones.

Two theropod silhouettes walk together in a big arc across the frame. One leaves green footprint outlines. The other leaves yellow footprint outlines. A single silhouette of an ankylosaur walks across the frame leaving orange front and rear footprints.

A big flock of gulls and royal terns gather on the beach.

Ildiko: Birds do many, many things in large groups. They gather when there’s a lot of food in one particular area, and there’ll be a lot of individuals of one species, plus multiple species.

Swans and geese swim together in the water. Gulls sleep together standing in shallow water.

Ildiko: They also like to sleep together in large groups. This is to avoid predation. And the ones on the outside of the group act as sentinels, yelling if they perceive an intruder.

Crows roost in a tree. A large flock of birds flies over a lake.

Ildiko: And birds, often when they’re nesting, they like a particular area that they find very safe or has lots of nesting possibilities. And again, they’re in very large groups.

Two American coots build a nest. Many albatrosses nest together in an open field.

Ildiko: My name is Ildiko Szabo. I’m the collections curator of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection here at the UBC Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

A woman with grey chest-length hair and glasses looks at the camera.