News Release

EARTH: Making tracks through the dinosaur diamond

Reports and Proceedings

American Geosciences Institute

Alexandria, VA - Between Utah and Colorado, there is a geographical diamond in which lies a rich collection of fossils and dinosaur footprints recording the history of when dinosaurs inhabited this region. All major ages of dinosaur life are recorded here, and for more than a hundred years, paleontologists have busily been debating which dinosaurs existed based on bones and abundant dinosaur tracks, the latter of which provide clues that allow geoscientists to interpret dinosaur daily life.

EARTH Magazine travels through time to meet the major players of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous -- from sauropods and theropods to protomammals -- that created the rich tapestry of life in this region millions of years ago. We follow dinosaurs along the hundreds-of-kilometers-long "Dinosaur Freeway," learning perhaps as much about them from just their footprints as we do from bones. Read more about the latest trackway findings at http://bit.ly/1UeWQFR.

The May 2016 Issue of EARTH Magazine is now available at http://www.earthmagazine.org and is filled with breaking news from the geoscience community. Find out about the softer side of hydrothermal vents, what role magnesium plays in Earth's geodynamo and how climate and the seafloor are linked. In addition to exploring the Dinosaur Diamond, explore Denver's dinosaurs in this month's Travels in Geology column. All this and much more in EARTH Magazine.

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Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH Magazine online at: http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.


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