An Integrated Approach to Three-Dimensional Data Collection at Dinosaur Tracksites in the Rocky Mountain West

Abstract

Public lands in the Rocky Mountain West are home to an abundance of vertebrate paleontological resources. These fossils typically are found in badlands terrain and at some distance from convenient transportation. These and other factors often make conventional surveying and mapping techniques time-consuming and problematic. Even obtaining quality images, at useful scales with limited distortions, can be difficult. In order to preserve the value of these unique paleontological resources, an integrated approach to close-range photogrammetry and high-accuracy ground-control surveying was developed in northern Wyoming for the documentation of tracks at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite. At this site, several methods for taking high-resolution, low-distortion photographs of localities were investigated. These methods included using tripods of various heights, remote-controlled airplanes, and an Aerial Camera Blimp System. In addition, the use of a variety of ground-control collection methods, including high accuracy GPS and Light Detection and Ranging, have also been investigated. These various field data collection methods were successfully integrated using soft copy photogrammetry to produce digital terrain models, which can represent the surface to a precision of 1 cm or less. The three-dimensional data were brought into GIS software where they are displayed, combined with photographs, and rotated for viewing from different perspectives. As a result of the success of these technologies in Wyoming, studies of other dinosaur tracksites in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming (as well as bonebeds) have utilized these methods. The information gained from these sites is aiding in our understanding of community dynamics and preservational history of dinosaur populations in the Rocky Mountain West.