Raptor Tracker

To keep their big sickle foot-claw sharp, Velociraptor and its relatives walked with one toe raised. Thanks to this unusual trait, a new trackway has been identified as the trail of a raptor. The tracks also show that, when the going got tough, that big claw was lowered for extra traction.

Read about the discovery here.

Xing L,Lockley MG, Yang G, Xu X, Cao J, Klein H, Persons WS IV, Shen HJ, Zheng XM. 2015. Unusual deinonychosaurian track morphology (Velociraptorichnus zhangi n. ichnosp.) from the Lower Cretaceous Xiaoba Formation, Sichuan Province, China. Palaeoworld (in press).