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Discover Dinosaur Tracks
Hidden among the boulders and rocks in Parowan Gap are fragile footprints left in the mud -- 65 to 75 million years ago. Discover the tracks the dinosaurs left behind.
Tracks leave behind clues to an animal's life history -- where it lived, whether the animal was large or small, predator or prey, etc. Most of the footprints in Parowan Gap have three toes and resemble giant bird feet. These dinosaurs, known as hadrosaurs, have been nick-named "duck-billed" dinosaurs because of their horny, toothless beaks. In reality, they lived very similar lives to the modern cow or buffalo, grazing the plentiful plants and shrubs of the Cretaceous Period.
Hadrosaurs were the most plentiful dinosaur species in North America of their time, spending most of their days eating and grazing. Most weighed a few tons and were 10 to 40 feet long. They had a thousand small teeth for grinding plant life and a long tail to help them balance. Like other plant-eaters, hadrosaurs were hunted by the meat-eaters and may have been easy targets because they moved slowly. Although they typically grazed on four legs, archeologists believe they were capable of clumsily running away from predators on two feet. |