SHELL - Hanging out with emus might seem an odd way to gain a new understanding of dinosaur behavior, but it has yielded valuable insight for a Wyoming paleontologist studying the Red Gulch Tracksite.

Brent Breithaupt, director of the University of Wyoming Geological Museum in Laramie, has been using the large, flightless emu as a modern-day proxy in learning how dinosaurs laid down tracks near here 165 million years ago.

Breithaupt and other researchers have spent years collecting data on more than 1,000 preserved dinosaur tracks at Red Gulch.

Because the North American fossil record for the animals is extremely limited, little is known about them, including a name or species.

It's believed they were three-toed meat-eaters that walked on two legs and were about the size of modern humans.

"We've watched how the emus have behaved and interacted," Breithaupt said. "Then we can compare that to five years of Red Gulch data to see how they line up.

"If dinosaurs were walking like birds and behaving similar to how modern birds behave, then we should see some similarities in their tracks," he said. "It turns out there are a lot of similarities, and that's an exciting thing."

The Red Gulch site features around 125 "trackways," or continuous paths of dinosaurs, scattered across 40 acres of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

A series of juvenile and adult tracks running together suggests family bonds and parental interaction, Breithaupt said, and larger herd-sized collections bolster arguments that they were social animals.

Breithaupt said he was hesitant to read too much into the tracks.

But studying modern birds has solved one vexing mystery - that of tracks "crossing over," so the right foot, for instance, was to the left of the left foot.

Emus, which share a narrow stride with the dinosaurs, frequently show this crossing behavior, Breithaupt said.

Such crossing likely took place when a cautious, slow-moving dinosaur would alter course in midstride, perhaps after noticing a predator or potential prey.

When the tracks were made, the area was at sea level, Breithaupt said, part of an ancient tidal flat along the prehistoric Sundance Sea.

They were preserved by a unique combination of events, being first covered by an algae mat, then encrusted by salt crystals, and later covered by mud from rising water levels.

"It was a world-class site waiting to be found," Breithaupt said, "and remains of great interest to researchers around the world."

That includes a British Broadcasting Corp. film crew, who visited the Red Gulch site earlier this month to tape interviews with Breithaupt and Neffra Matthews, a BLM geologist.

A co-production with the Discovery Channel, the hour-long segment of the BBC science program "Horizons" will explore what the world might be like today if dinosaurs had never become extinct.

Set to air early next year, the show will be a "thought experiment completely open to speculation," said director Mark Everest. "We'll be featuring Brent as a respected paleontologist helping us look at the bigger picture of the relationship between dinosaurs and birds."

Red Gulch was one of many stops in seven states on the crew's swing through the United States.

It's no surprise that Red Gulch would feature prominently in a dinosaur documentary, Breithaupt said. "It's the most intensively studied dinosaur track site in the world."

Researchers have flown remote-controlled planes and a small blimp over the site to take aerial photographs, mapped every track by crawling on hands and knees across all 40 acres, taken Mylar tracings of the tracks and used a calibrated, high-resolution camera to capture detailed 3-D images.

Heavily traveled sections of the site have nicknames, like "the ballroom," for example.

During mapping and study, researchers set out different colored poker chips to flag the footprints for easy reference.

Without knowing what to look for, the tracks aren't easily spotted, but a little practice and following the expected stride of the ancient beasts can help spotters follow the trails.

"Even after looking at these tracks over and over again, I still have moments where I have to stop and get my bearings," said Matthews, who formerly worked for the Defense Mapping Agency and oversaw BLM efforts to compile a comprehensive photographic record of the site.

"I'm still seeing new things," said Matthews, who works at the BLM National Science and Technology Center in Denver. "The exciting thing about this kind of science is, as you gather more data, your hypotheses can change."

Matthews and Breithaupt said that as researchers continue to analyze data gathered over more than three years by students, volunteers and specialists, new ideas and discoveries will surface.

Though the tracks have survived for millions of years, Wyoming's extreme weather is taking its toll, with erosion and the freeze-thaw cycle starting to crack and crumble the outer edges of parts of the track site.

Breithaupt praised work by the BLM in documenting the site for researchers and interpreting it for the roughly 10,000 people who visit annually.

"We've had good support from the BLM," he said. "It's a great example of how a science resource can also be managed for public use."

The tracks were first reported in 1997 by area residents, said BLM Archaeologist Michael Bies.

"Word traveled fast," Bies said. "Pretty soon, everyone knew, because there was tremendous word-of-mouth."

Bies said the BLM worked quickly to install a boardwalk around the site, as well as interpretive displays. There are plans eventually to build a larger interpretive center closer to U.S. Highway 14-16-20, he said.

"And we're still worried about theft," said Bies, citing instances of fossil thefts from Red Gulch and other sites, including the nearby Hyattville quarry.

Bies said surveillance cameras are a growing part of BLM efforts to catch fossil thieves, who typically are not pranksters but rather opportunists seeking to sell the stolen goods for a profit.

Despite the ravages of nature and fossil thieves, Breithaupt is optimistic the site will continue to yield new information.

"The science at this site will continue, I'm sure," he said. "There's a lot more work to be done."

On the Net:

Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite: {M7www.wy.blm.gov/rgdt

Contact Ruffin Prevost at {M3rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307- 527-7250.