Lark Quarry revisited: a critique of methods used to identify a large dinosaurian track-maker in the Winton Formation (Albian–Cenomanian), western Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Thulborn, R.A., 2013. Lark Quarry revisited: a critique of methods used to identify a large dinosaurian track-maker in the Winton Formation (Albian–Cenomanian), western Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2013.748482

A remarkable assemblage of dinosaur tracks in the Winton Formation (Albian–Cenomanian) at Lark Quarry, a site in western Queensland, Australia, has long been regarded as evidence of a dinosaurian stampede. However, one recently published study has claimed that existing interpretation of Lark Quarry is incorrect because the largest track-maker at the site was misidentified and could not have played a pivotal role in precipitating a stampede. That recent study has identified the largest track-maker as an ornithopod (bipedal plant-eating dinosaur) similar or identical to Muttaburrasaurus and not, as formerly supposed, a theropod (predaceous dinosaur) resembling Allosaurus. Those iconoclastic claims are examined here and are shown to be groundless: they are based partly on misconceptions and partly on fabricated data that have been assessed uncritically using quantitative measures of questionable significance. Such ill-founded claims do not reveal any substantial flaw in the existing interpretation of the Lark Quarry dinosaur tracks.

Abstract

澳大利亚昆士兰西部Lark采石场的Winton组(Albian-Cenomanian) 中有一个寻乎异常的恐龙足迹组合。很久以来这个组合都被认为是恐龙群奔跑的证据。然而, 最近发表的一项研究宣布这样的解释不正确, 因为该地最大的足迹制造者的鉴定是错误的, 不可能在导致奔跑上起关键性的作用。那项研究将最大足迹制造者鉴定为鸟足龙(双足食植物恐龙) ,相似于或相同于Muttaburrasauru, 而不是与Allosaurus相像的兽足龙(捕食恐龙)。我们对这个反对意见进行了检验, 发现它毫无依据: 它部分依据错误概念, 部分依据编造的资料。我们用可疑意义定量测量对它进行了检验。这种不攻自破的主张并没有将现有对Lark采石场恐龙足迹解释的主要缺陷暴露出来。

Key words:

• Dinosaur tracks
• methodology
• ichnology
• Winton Formation
• Cretaceous
• Australia