Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/12/97373/fossil-track-of-giant-bird-found.htm
This Flightless bird standing 7 feet tall walked the Earth 50 million years ago. It is called
Diatryma.
After the landslide in Deming in 2009, this fossil was found. The 1,300-pound slab was flown by helicopter then driven to WWU. Where it will be open for viewing and studied.
It is said to be the first undisputed track print of a Diatryma ever found.
The new track is necessarily being compared to a track found east of Auburn 18 years ago. That's when John Patterson of Maple Valley found a larger, three-toed track in a slab of siltstone that had fallen from a cliff in the Green River gorge.
Researchers disagreed then, and now, whether that track was left by a Diatryma, by another creature, or perhaps by someone playing a hoax.
Sources:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/12/1522882/wwu-researchers-retrieve-fossil.html bellinghamherald.com
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/12/97373/fossil-track-of-giant-bird-found.htm
I read the info on Patterson's find. looks as though he was beat up pretty bad by the same professionals who now say they are the first to find a Diatryma track!?
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