What are the fundamentals of tracking?
Do they end at just being able to ID a species? Do they go beyond being able to read the smallest ridge? Does the interaction of the foot surface and soil carry, or create useful information?
If you could watch just the first layer of sand move as a foot creates a track would that bring any useful insights?
Because of the separation of elements and the floating in space approach, this illustration is a bit more dramatic than most of those done up until now.
Does the illustration reveal useful info about reading tracks? It is interesting to watch that first layer of sand interact with the foot … Especially just behind the front tip of the hoof as the foot rotates down to push the body.
And of course the grains included in that first layer must travel, some submerge as pressures force other grains around. So, if that first layer is not always the same grains … What does that mean for reading the track?
Stacking Sand 
Great information! Thank you.
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