Size of Ceratopsipes goldenensis footprints

[Vladimír Socha]

Good day to all DMG members!

I am curious, how big could be the maker of Ceratopsipes goldenensis footprints? This is an ichnospecies of very large ceratopsian dinosaur, living in what is now Colorado during the latest Cretaceous (Late Maastrichtian), about 68 million years ago. It was formally described in 1995 from the Laramie Formation. The maker could be a giant individual of Triceratops or Torosaurus. The largest footprint measures almost 80 cm (32 in) across, which indicates a truly giant size for its maker. In fact, it could be the ichnofossil of the largest known ceratopsian dinosaur individual known to science. Some guesstimates are truly breathtaking - lenght of 12 meters or more and mass in the range of 15 to 20 tonnes! It would be the largest non-sauropod dinosaur of all time, only rivaled by giant hadrosaurids. Are there any more reliable sources and size estimates for this ichnotaxon? Thank you in advance! VS.

References:

Lockley, M. G. and Hunt, A. P. (1995). Ceratopsid tracks and associated ichnofauna from the Laramie Formation (Upper Cretaceous: Maastrichtian) of Colorado. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15 (3): 592-614.

Lockley, M. G. (1986). A Guide to Dinosaur Tracksites of the Colorado Plateau and American Southwest. University of Colorado at Denver Geology Department Magazine, Special Issue. 1: 1-56.

David A. Eberth & Sandra L. Kamo (2019). First high-precision U-Pb CA-ID-TIMS age for the Battle Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Red Deer River valley, Alberta, Canada: implications for ages, correlations, and dinosaur biostratigraphy of the Scollard, Frenchman, and Hell Creek formations. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 56 (10).

Hicks, J. F., Johnson, K. R., Obradovich, J. D., Miggins, D. P., and Tauxe, L. (2003). Magnetostratigraphy of Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to lower Eocene strata of the Denver Basin, Colorado. In K. R. Johnson, R. G. Raynolds and M. L. Reynolds (eds), Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Laramide Strata in the Denver Basin, Pt. II., Rocky Mountain Geology. 38: 1-27.

Molina-Pérez & Larramendi (2016). Récords y curiosidades de los dinosaurios Terópodos y otros dinosauromorfos. Larousse. Barcelona, Spain. (p. 120).

Carpenter, K. and Young, B. (2002). Late Cretaceous dinosaurs from the Denver Basin, Colorado. In K. R. Johnson, R. G. Raynolds and M. L. Reynolds (eds), Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Laramide Strata in the Denver Basin, Pt. I., Rocky Mountain Geology. 37: 237-254.

[Tyler Holmes]

Footprint scaling is generally very unreliable (and I say this as someone who has engaged in it at times). The size could indicate a massive animal, but it also could have been made by an animal with proportionally large feet, or an underprint from a "normal" sized animal. Distortion can also play a role. There are some very long hadrosaur prints out there, but a heel skid exaggerates the length. 

The largest ceratopsid bones we have generally seem to be from animals around 8.5 to 9 meters long, which is significantly smaller than the Ceratopsipes footprint would indicate, which is why I'm skeptical. I know of some giant theropod and hadrosaur tracks, but even if we take those tracks at face value (assuming normal proportions and no distortion), the track makers would have been only a bit larger than concurrent large theropods or hadrosaurs. I would be deeply skeptical unless we start finding bones from some truly giant ceratopsids. 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Dinosaur Mailing Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to DinosaurMailingG...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/DinosaurMailingGroup/b27ec71a-3e37-4871-865e-b8da8e195285n%40googlegroups.com.