Gallery: Tracking Dinosaurs, Bear Dogs, and Scorpions With Fossil Footprints

  • Image may contain Soil Animal Invertebrate Insect and Archaeology
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    01

    Cat Footprint

    The preserved pawprint of a prehistoric feline, made roughly 10 million years ago.
  • Image may contain Soil Archaeology and Mud
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
    02

    Bear Dog Footprint

    Bear dog track from the Barstow formation in California's Mojave Desert, left 15 million years ago.
  • Image may contain Ground Soil Nature and Outdoors
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    03

    elephant3

    "The elephant print is pretty unmistakable. It's about two feet across," says Alf Museum curator Andrew Farke. The elephant that made this print lived 15 million years ago in Southern California. \[View in full screen for more info\]
  • Image may contain Outdoors Nature Sand Bird Animal and Soil
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    04

    Scorpion

    These are believed to be scorpion tracks, recovered from the same location in Arizona as [the spider tracks](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/03/prehistoric-spider-footprints/) we showed you in March.
  • Image may contain Rock Animal Bee Invertebrate Honey Bee and Insect
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum
    05

    Dino Burrows

    This amazing snapshot of life in the early Jurassic includes the three-pronged imprint (pointing up) of a dinosaur, pressed into a rippled substrate punctuated by numerous invertebrate burrows.
  • Image may contain Footprint
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    06

    Camel Footprints

    Two 15-million-year-old camel tracks. Are they the traces of two camels walking side by side? The same individual walking a well-worn path?
  • Image may contain Soil Archaeology and Fossil
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    07

    Sliding Camel Footprints

    This is what it might look like if your attempt to preserve your footprints for posterity were foiled by a slippery surface.
  • Image may contain Soil Rug Rock Fossil and Archaeology
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    08

    Shorebird Footprints

    These are the tiny, preserved 10-million-year-old footprints of prehistoric shorebirds belonging to an ancient group called the Charadriiformes.
  • Image may contain Clothing and Apparel
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum
    09

    coconino big

    This trackway is about 20 feet long, and is crisscrossed by the 260-million-year-old footprints of both vertebrates and invertebrates.
  • Image may contain Animal Invertebrate Bee Insect and Honey Bee
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum
    10

    Coconino Trackway

    Segment of a 260-million-year-old trackway crisscrossed by the prints of ancient lizard-type animals and invertebrates, such as scorpions.
  • Image may contain Soil Archaeology Animal and Bird
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum/U.S. Bureau of Land Management
    11

    Creodonts

    These are the tracks of early dog-like carnivores that lived 55 million years ago in Wyoming.
  • Image may contain Soil Rock Sand Outdoors Nature and Fossil
    Photos by Andy Farke/Alf Museum
    12

    dinosaur-brownstone

    This classic New York brownstone has many dinosaur tracks pressed into it.
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