In The News: Department of Geoscience

NPR

It’s time for a dinosaur update.

A few years ago, UNLV researchers were tasked with trying to figure out what kind of prehistoric animal made tracks that were fossilized in the area of Gold Butte National Monument.

KVVU-TV: Fox 5

A geology professor with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas discovered a set of footprints that were left behind by a reptile-like creature 310 million years ago at the Grand Canyon.

Atlas Obscura

Eons ago, somewhere on Earth, a prehistoric lizard-like creature crept across a wet sandy dune next to a shallow continental sea.

LiveScience

About 315 million years ago — long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth — an early reptile scuttled along in a strangely sideways jaunt, leaving its tiny footprints embedded in the landscape, new research finds.

New York Post

Footprints of a “lizard like-creature” 310 million years old have been unearthed in the Grand Canyon, making them potentially the oldest reptile footprints ever found.

Fox News

310-million-year old footprints of a "lizard like-creature" have been unearthed in the Grand Canyon, making them potentially the oldest ever reptile footprints ever found.

The London Economic

What could be the oldest footprints ever, of a lizard like-creature that roamed Earth 310 million years ago have been discovered in the Grand Canyon. Made by one of the first reptiles that ever lived the prints make it look as if the creature was line dancing.

Mashable

We’ve entered some profoundly unfamiliar planetary territory.

National Geographic

About 310 million years ago in what's now Arizona, a primitive creature trundled along on all fours through towering sand dunes that spilled into the sea. Normally, this creature's tracks would have vanished like other footfalls on a beach. But in a rare case, the tracks hardened into sandstone—preserving this flash of ancient behavior.

Smithsonian

Some 310 million years ago, a reptile-like creature with an unusual gait roamed the sandy expanses of the Grand Canyon, leaving a trail of 28 footprints that can still be seen today. As Michael Greshko reports for National Geographic, these unusually well-preserved markers represent the national park’s oldest footfalls—and, if additional analysis links the early reptile to one that left a similar set of prints in Scotland roughly 299 million years ago, the tracks may even earn the distinction of being the oldest of their kind by more than 10 million years.

National Geographic

About 310 million years ago in what's now Arizona, a primitive creature trundled along on all fours through towering sand dunes that spilled into the sea. Normally, this creature's tracks would have vanished like other footfalls on a beach. But in a rare case, the tracks hardened into sandstone—preserving this flash of ancient behavior.

Playboy

Speculation aside, there are valuable facts presented by the study, one of which is that we still have time to establish climate change policies to thwart catastrophic events, says UNLV geoscience professor and climate change expert Matthew Lachniet.