3D Ichnology – Recovering digital 3D models of dinosaur footprints

Ichnology deals with the traces of prehistoric organisms and thus with the study of dinosaur footprints and tracks. This paper reports on a reliable and precise methodology developed to integrate high-resolution close range photogrammetry and range sensors for 3D surveys of dinosaur footprints. The 3D footprint and track models recovered here yield a great deal of accurate morphological and morphometrical information, providing palaeoichnologists with a simpler and cheaper way to document track fossils and the opportunity to formulate new hypotheses about the dynamics of dinosaur locomotion.