Dinosaur Track/Pictograph Site

Recently I visited an interesting site in the Vermillion Cliffs east of Kanab, Utah. It's a dinosaur trackway located on top of the cliffs, with about 20 well-preserved tracks. The tracks range in size from 30 cm to 41 cm long. According to a local paleontologist, the tracks were most likely left by the dinosaurs Coelophysis and Dilophosaurus, dating to appromately 190 million years ago. On the cliff directly below the dinosaur trackway is a pictograph site exhibiting what appears to be a painting of a dinosaur track.

 

Above: Detail of a dinosaur track.

 

Above: A portion of the pictograph panel showing the dinosaur track in the middle, superimposing and centered between a line of Anasazi stick figure anthropomorphs. This panel also has nine small manmade holes drilled into the surface, along with some incised marks. Several of the pictographs to the right of this section have been "cancelled" with chisel marks.

More photos of the tracks and the pictographs
These pages contain additional photos of the tracks and a complete set of photos from the pictograph site.

It was pointed out to me this site is listed in Castleton's book "Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Utah", Volume Two. He seems to agree that the pictograph depicts the nearby dinosaur tracks. This correlation of dinosaur tracks and a dinosaur track pictograph is unique in my experience. If you've run across anything similar, I'd like to hear about it. You can contact me at the email address below.

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©2002 Mary Allen. All Rights Reserved. All photos copyrighted.
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