Welcome to the Greybull/Staffin dinotalk blogsite

Hi! My name is Dr Neil Clark and I study dinosaurs. For the last ten or more years I have worked on the Isle of Skye where lots of Middle Jurassic dinosaur remains have been found. This summer, I was lucky to travel to Wyoming to look at the Middle Jurassic dinosaur remains there also. As you send messages to each other across the Atlantic Ocean, I will add comments on the results of a study comparing the dinosaur remains in Wyoming to those on the Isle of Skye. Why not ask each other on what you know about the dinosaurs where you live? Visit your local museum and find out what fossils they have. Let each other know what it is like to live where you live. Send your own pictures with your postings. Interview local fossil experts about the dinosaurs in your area and let others know what you find out. Above all, have fun!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Theropod families


Hi everyone. Neil Clark here. I haven't posted to the site for a long time, so I thought I would let you in on some of the research I have been undertaking. I have studied a number of footprints from a locality to the northwest of the Isle of Skye north of a town called Uig. These are interesting because they are mostly young dinosaur footprints, but there is an adult footprint also. Not only that, the footprints all indicate that the animals were all moving in the same direction. Depending on how fast it takes for the sand to dry out and be covered, it seems likely that they were all made at about the same time. This would mean that we have, for the first time, evidence that adult theropods (meat-eaters) looked after their young! I like to think that the adult dinosaurs were taking their kids for a walk, just like ducks do with their ducklings!