Pterosaur

There have been numerous discoveries of various tracks made by long-extinct species and ancestors of living ones. You can even buy casts of numerous tracks from PaleoScene.

A cool new set of tracks has made news this week, and it appears to show how a pterosaur made its landing. Not Exactly Rocket Science blogger Ed Yong has the scoop:

Several million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs walked the earth, a flying reptile - a pterosaur - came in for a landing. As it approached, it used its powerful wings to slow itself down and hit the ground feet first. It took a short hopping step before landing a second time. On solid ground, it leant forward, put its arms down and walked away on all fours....

The first set of footprints has no corresponding handprints, the heel portion isn't isn't deeper or longer than usual, and there aren't any piles of sediment around them. The pterosaur clearly landed feet-first, but it did so gently rather than braking heavily into the ground. Nonetheless, it wasn't a perfect landing. The slight impressions left by its claws and the short distance before the next set of footprints suggest that the animal stuttered slightly, hopping forward before coming in to land.

For more info on Dinosaur tracks and Ichnology (the study of fossil tracks and other non-skeletal fossils such as eggs), check out this excellent introduction from Glen J. Kuban.