May 9, 2014 6:30 AM

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

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.
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.

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. \[View in full screen for more info\]
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.

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.
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?

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.
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.

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.
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.

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.
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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