DinoFest 2022 Speaker: Dr. John Foster
Title of Lecture: Red in claw: dinosaur trackways as keys to appearance and behavior
Lecture Description: Tracks of dinosaurs and other animals in the Age of Dinosaurs of western North America comprise a wide diversity of trackmakers in a range of environments. This track fossil record has improved dramatically in the past 40 years, and the information gleaned has evolved from mere curiosity of preservation to important supplements to the bone record. Unlike bones, which are frequently preserved in environments in which the animals did not live, tracks provide a snapshot of ancient taxa as living animals. Dr. Foster will discuss how the tracks and traces of dinosaurs and other animals provide unexpected indications of their appearance and behavior beyond what we can infer from other evidence.
Bio: Dr. Foster is a paleontologist and curator at the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal. He has been wrestling with the vertebrate paleoecology of the Morrison Formation for about 30 years, and one angle of that research has involved the fossil footprint record of this famous Late Jurassic formation. Although it is better known for other dinosaurs, the Morrison also contains a significant record of mammals, crocodylomorphs, and tiny vertebrate animals, most of which he has encountered at some point in his research. John is the author of two books, Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World, and Cambrian Ocean World: Ancient Sea Life of North America.