Question

Dinosaurs once stomped across much of the planet, sometimes leaving tracks in mud that were buried in more mud and later hardened to stone. this sample is from the philmont scout ranch in new mexico. it is a loose block that fell down from a cliff above. the footprint was made by a tyrannosaurus rex. the print is 33 inches long (almost 3 feet for one foot!) and 28 inches wide, and extended 9 inches deep into the sediment. the sun was shining as indicated, and the black arrows point to shadows from two of the three toes of the track. is the rock with the track now upside-down (you are looking at the side that was down when the sediment was soft) or right-side up (you are looking at the side that was up when the sediment was soft)?

Answer 1

you are looking at the foot print of a t-rex. the reason it is soo deep is because the soil is soft and the t-res is so heavy it made it go down.

Answer 2

In this case study: The rock with the track is upside-down.

Step-by-step explanation:

All right this is going to be very difficult so please pay careful attention. First of all, prints are the impression a living thing leaves in soft terrain without consideration of its composition. The physics of the print is down displacement of the terrain by up-down pressure. In this case, after it mineralized the rock was built in the opposite. To fill the space left by the dinosaur. So instead of being an incision, it became a protrude. So if the shadows draw an extending mantle away from the edge of the print. That means it is a terrain protrude and that is upside down.