For tanks to leave a set of dinosaur foot prints, all that's needed is a simple modification of the existing caterpillar tracks.

Firstly, a set of articulated dinosaur feet shaped plates are added to the treads. These are spaced out in such a way as to leave a right-foot, left-foot walking pattern as they are pressed into the ground.

The next modification is the provision of much softer inflated treads on the spaces between the dinosaur feet plates. This is to minimise the marks left between the feetprints on the ground.

As Tankasaurus Rex advances, it leaves a trail of dinosaur foot prints in its wake, and even in reverse the plates can be rotated to cause more confusion as to the direction of travel.

Tankasaurus Rex has limited military value, other than to convince your opposing forces that you're totally bonkers, unpredictable, capable of acts of complete madness and have more money than sense. (ie it's a halfbaked idea)
-- xenzag, Nov 06 2023

Also ... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4pIrkEsh7Vo
Nothing to do with the idea; just someone extracting maximum value from "also" [pertinax, Nov 07 2023]

https://cyberneticz...marie-glory-french/ [pocmloc, Nov 08 2023]

The fancy version https://www.jpl.nas...racks-in-morse-code
Curiosity's wheels leave a code. [neutrinos_shadow, Nov 09 2023]

You wanna get in their heads? Hello Kitty tread plates.
-- 21 Quest, Nov 06 2023


I don't have a version!
-- pocmloc, Nov 06 2023


Dibs on the Sasquatch/Yeti versions!
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 07 2023


That's technically only one version.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 07 2023


Doesn't the yeti footprint have crampons?
-- pertinax, Nov 07 2023


Also, YETI; Yeet for extra-terrestrial intelligence!
-- pertinax, Nov 07 2023


Also, it's very important that the vehicle modified in this way should not just roll along, but should thump the ground rhythmically, notwithstanding the implied discomfort for the crew.
-- pertinax, Nov 07 2023


A heavier dinosaur like a brontosaurus may well be provided for with such a modification.... approved with thanks.
-- xenzag, Nov 07 2023


[+] A tank tread appliqué that impresses the entire human body mass into the turf. A warning of bad things coming with this tank. Or that already came. Impressions of limbs, weapons, URLs, QR & Bar Codes, etc.

Like a massive jet printer in the track cowling, that can be changed on the fly by an internal control panel. Entire passages of best-sellers could stripe the landscape, or The Geneva Convention. Kilroy was here.
-- minoradjustments, Nov 07 2023


//Doesn't the yeti footprint have crampons?//

Only the arthritic ones.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 08 2023


Could have retractable pins or small plates in each tread, controlled like a dot-matrix printer.
-- pocmloc, Nov 08 2023


I had intitially considered a word printing version when first generating the idea, but the dinosaur feet won the day as they provided an achievable, and more ridiculous outcome. Some time ago I believe I did chicken feet print tyres, so these are a natural extension to that idea.
-- xenzag, Nov 08 2023



random, halfbakery