Daily Dino Fact: First dino tracks found by farmboy with hilarious name
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Noah's Raven
Q: Where were the first dinosaur trackways found? -Doulas1
A: Great question Doulas1. In all actuality, dinosaur tracks have probably been found by humans for centuries – they just didn’t know what they were. If you remember, the Chinese had found dinosaur bones way before anyone else did, but they thought they were dragon bones. In the United States, Native American drawings have been found next to tracks calling them “bird tracks.”
The first authenticated dinosaur tracks were found by the hilariously named Pliny Moody, a farmboy in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He dug them up in 1802 while ploughing up slabs of reddish rock. The newly found tracks were displayed at the Moody family farmhouse. The local doctor decided they were the tracks of Noah’s Raven, and the set of tracks were henceforth known by that name. It wasn’t until later that they were determined to be the tracks of a small ornithischian dinosaur.
-Rex
