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The Jurassic: A New Beginning

by Georges Odier

101 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0908; ISBN 1-4120-0539-6; US$16.95, C$22.00, EUR14.30, £9.91

"The Mouse that Roared" "Time for the Tracks to Join the Debate"

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about the book      about the author      excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book A new beginning for the Jurassic? Perhaps not in the then entire Pangea Continent but certainly in the region that is now the Western United States. That's what discoveries of new fossil footprints are either implying or confirming. While the uncovering of Sauropod or Ornithischian tracks in the very early and upper Middle Jurassic simply confirms their pre-supposed presence during that era, and while diminutive tritactyl tracks from the onset of the Jurassic onward only support the birds' dinosaurian origin, the presence of multitudes of primitive but true mammal species as early as the Triassic-Jurassic as dreary and inhospitable deserts. Contrary to earlier theories based on a death of fossils and tracks that era was most likely if not in fact dominated by a vast variety of early mammals suggesting that the true mammal lineage had already coalesced as far down as the Middle Triassic.

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About the Author The author began his involvement in fossil footprints studies as a part-time 'tracker' in 1991 in-around the Canyonlands of southeastern Utah, then moved to Moab, Utah, in 1999 as a full-time field researcher. Among other scientists his studies were inspired by Prof. Martin Lockley, an ichnologist, (U. of Colorado) and Prof. Frank de Courten, a paleontologist (Sierra College, CA) both of them well-known for their work in this part of the US. He wrote a Field Guide for amateur 'trackers' in 2000, and continues to write Field Reports for the scientific community, mainly preliminary documentation of new track sites. His methodical field research has helped him uncover many fossil footprints of scientific importance in-around the Moab area of the Canyonlands, particularly diminutive mammal tracks and trackways hiterhto unknown in the track recorded.

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Excerpt

introduction

My recent field research is raising a number of questions for the Paleontology community. The following propositions present a basis for further study and research:

The true mammal lineage appears to be much older than previously thought, by at least 50 million years, and extending somewhere into the Triassic. Primitive or not Sauropods, or similar quadrupedal Ornithischians, inhabited the Wingate Desert of the very Early Jurassic, and thus must have been present at least in the Late Triassic.

It now appears to be confirmed that Prosauropods of the Early Jurassic were an evolutionary dead-end.

The true bird lineage most likely stems from diminutive Theropods as far back as the very Early Jurassic, perhaps even earlier in the Late Triassic.

This is what new discoveries of Early and Middle Jurassic tracks in southeastern Utah either suggest or confirm, and the reason for this book.

Georges P. Odier
Moab, Utah

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Catalogue Information

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