Erik Kvale

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Tracking dinosaurs

Geology field camp director makes significant discovery in Wyoming.

For 167 million years the tracks remained embedded in the Wyoming earth. For centuries individuals may have noticed them, but no one thought much of it.

That is until Iowa State geology alumnus Erik Kvale ('78, '82 master's, '86 Ph.D.) went to the sparse land near his hometown of Greybull, Wyo.

Kvale, who works with at the Indiana Geological Survey, and Kansas State colleague Al Archer were in the area to look into offering teacher workshops at Iowa State's geology field camp. A native of the area, Kvale and Archer were out in the field looking at some modern ripples with Kvale's aunt and uncle.

"I was trying to explain how ripples form and my Aunt Row (short for Rowena) said ‘why don't we go look at this outcrop up the road that has ripples on it,'" Kvale said. "I immediately noticed these diplow burrows on it - they are beautiful ripples."

Kvale still hadn't noticed the tracks yet. Then his uncle asked him if they could expect to find dinosaur tracks there.

"I was thinking that these were all marine sediments and I said ‘no these are the wrong formation,'" Kvale recalled. "Those words had barely cleared my lips when my eyes caught sight of the first dinosaur track.

"I looked up and you could see the right, left, right, left, left, right, left. It was a big long track and after that we were off and running."

Off and running 167 million years after the tracks were formed by two-legged (bipedal) dinosaurs. Scientists have determined that most, if not all of the tracks were made by dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic period.

The tracks have been mapped and measured and now form the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) educational site.

"We were able to convince the BLM that this was a rare discovery," Kvale said. "And because the exposures were so good and there were so many dinosaur tracks, we were able to interest the BLM in making this a useful educational site."

Since Kvale's initial discovery, more than 1,000 tracks have been located by paleontologists and geologists from around the country. The tracks are 8 to 28 centimeters long, have three distinct toes and may also show the heel and claws.

The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite is the largest tracksite in Wyoming and one of only a few worldwide from the Middle Jurassic Period (160 to 180 million years old).

Kvale says there is a 20 million year gap where no dinosaur remains are known anywhere in North America.

And while this discovery doesn't consist of dinosaur remains, the tracks have been determined to fall right in the middle of that 20 million year gap.

"It is an interesting period of time in geologic history because this is about the time period when birds were evolving from meat-eating dinosaurs," Kvale said. "These are world class deposits that are extremely rare for this time period."

The unique discovery has attracted attention from CNN, the Los Angeles Times and the Discovery Channel. Red Gulch also sees almost 20,000 visitors a year. All because his uncle asked Erik Kvale the right question at the right time.

"The locals probably had seen the tracks but didn't recognize what they were," he said. "I was on the surface for ten minutes before I saw them, and I've had quite a bit of experience working with dinosaur tracks and dinosaur bones."