Some old some new finds

A large theropod trackway (EK) A lot of other different tracks on the same site.

 A small theropod trackway near the sauropod dinoturbation (EK)

A mid-size theropod from the cape Kamenjak. Also my find, of course. (LK)

A REMINDER! My book...

Once again on Grakalovac

The Grakalovac promontory on the south Istrian Cape Kamenjak is famous for his medium sized theropod trackway from the late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Every single footprint of this trackway is encircled by the (ugly) black paint. However, there are many more theropod tracks at the same outcrop, but they are less preserved and less visible. The image at the bottom shows the smaller footprints of a theropod that might have been related to the dromaeosauridae or noasauridae. The toe #2 seems to be reduced and baring a larger claw. But that is only an assumption. The dromaeosaurid tracks are extremely rare. This footprint is about 14,5 cm long.

I have done a bit different interpretation of this track before:

Back to Grakalovac (2)

It is a part of the trackway. However, in my first interpretation, which may be more detailed and better I didn't draw the surrounding poorly preserved prints. Which may be the prints that were placed a bit later, when the substrate was drier.

On Istrian tracks again

The footprint of a medium-sized theropod from the Grakalovac (Kamenjak/Premantura) site.

I keep finding new tracks after the heavy rains at the Ankylosaur dinoturbation site (I) in Pula. This left pes impression is about 40 cm long (+- 2 cm). my interpretation is the red outline below, of course. Obviously it belongs to the smaller specimen on the site. "Smaller" means that the dinosaur was probably about 8-9 meters long. That is huge for an ankylosaur! Now you can calculate yourself how big was the trackmaker anky who left the footprints some 70-75 cm long there!

The outcrop.

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Two consecutive cervical vertebrae of the Istrian pygmy titanosauriform sauropod (Early Cretaceous -Barremian). Only a small portion of the anterior one is preserved. The fossil before preparation. The photograph from the museum/gallery Ulika in Bale. — kraj: Bale-Valle Istra

Tracks, tracks...everywhere (3)

I don't know if I have been clear enough, so far. This cape Kamenjak track site is NEW and has not been described yet. Nobody has noticed nor detected these Cenomanian dinosaur tracks. I call it "Kamenjak 3".
I've been analysing my photographs from this site and the site that was described to a certain degree in Fabio's (Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia) paper (Grakalovac promontory), which I have named "Kamenjak1" and all my finds lead to this conclusion: In Cenomanian (late Cretaceous), Istria was a part of a large piece of land (Adriatic Dinaridic Carbonate Platform - ADCP) sustaining viable populations of various types of big dinosaurs. It was either a very large island or still Afro-Arabic  peninsula. Not only that I speculate that a large tyreophoran track is present on Grakalovac (see my previous posts), but it seems quite big ankylosaur was present on this new site, too. While this is still just a possibility because the tracks are poorly preserved (one is outlined, while the other is under my foot), the  theropod footprint beside them speaks for itself. The largest one was some 73 cm long. The print is shallow, because the substrate was already quite dry when it was made, so it effected the mud cracks. The "owner" of the foot must have measured at least 9-10 meters in length! I have outlined the probable prints.

Here is the size and shape comparison of the theropod tracks from "Kamenjak 3" site (red bar is 12cm long). The largest footprint is from the photograph above.

Tracks, tracks...everywhere (2)

I've been to Pula over the Easter holidays, but didn't have time to visit the Kamenjak sites. However,
I tried to analyse the old photographs once again. Here is the result (below). I am positive now that the mid footprint was no ornithopod but a fairly large theropod with very long middle  toe (#3). A smaller theropod (green outline) was crossing diagonally the path of the large one (or vice versa).

In Pula, the first tourists are sunbathing and even swimming in still rather cool sea.

Tracks, tracks...everywhere

The tridactyl dinosaur footprints are omnipresent in the Cretaceous laminated sediments of Kamenjak. The problem is: they are not that easy to spot. Nor they are easy to define, because they are in a different state of preservation left on a varying substrate. Imagine a mud flat. The tide has just receded. The first dinosaurs to cross the mud will leave deep, often collapsing tracks. As the mud dries, the next tracks will be less and less visible. Dinosaurs step over the tracks left by the other dinosaurs (or themselves) earlier, making them deformed. The waves start to wash the shore. Some of the dried tracks will be erased, some will remain and get covered with the sand and mud. The trackways are often messy.
Here is an example of a dinoturbation with various types of tracks. I tried to interpret some of the tracks with the red outline. It seems that at least three kinds of theropods left their footprints. Of course, I couldn't see all the prints. It's hard to notice them and take photographs with a digital camera on a bright sunny day with almost white rocks reflecting light from all sides.

A close-up with somewhat different interpretation of the tracks in the middle of the outcrop (below).
The footprint is about 45 to 48 cm long. If my interpretation is correct, that transfers into a 6-7 meters long predatory dinosaur. You wouldn't want to meet such a beast! The other theropod was obviously much smaller.

A photograph of the Kamenjak's carbonate rocks below. These rocks are hiding hundreds if not thousands of Cretaceous tetrapod tracks for those with enough time, patience, determination and most important a good eye to discover and describe them.

A look back at the Porer islet with the lighthouse which is behind us now. We are walking towards the tip of the cape.

Back to Kamenjak

If you don't mind the heat, the south Istrian cape (rt) Kamenjak is a nice place for trekking and observing the nature in Spring time. You may even get lucky and see the extremely rare monk seal.
It is too hot for me to walk during the Summer, but there are plenty of nice beaches to go to swimming or snorkeling. The islet Fenoliga which has numerous (although weathered) dinosaur tracks is visible in the distance, between the cape on the left and the light house (islet Porer) on the right. One can see the rudist fossils along the way.
While walking towards the tip of the cape I have noticed an interesting rock in a farm's wall (suhozid). It looks to me it might be an impression of a late Cretaceous plant. See below, far left in the photograph. I'd appreciate if any of the blog readers can help me out in identifying the fossil (or is it just an artifact?) Could it be the mid-Cretaceous angiosperm Sapindopsis angusta? In fact, it resembles some kind of psilophyte plant. The environment was supratidal-intertidal  with extensive mudflats, where dinosaurs left their tracks. There were rudist reefs and  stromatolites in the shallow sea of the lagoons.
Maybe it was some kind of an algae washed ashore (?)

A common sight at Kamenjak are sheep herds.

In some places, the path gets quite narrow because of the rich flora.

And here is the view at the Fenoliga islet. So close, but out of reach if you don't have a boat.

Fabio's paper describing the Istrian Cenomanian tracks. Kamenjak and Fenoliga sites are included.

Here are the Istrian Cenomanian theropod prints (outlines) from the paper:

A few of the footprints have a "fat" middle toe (toe # 3) padding. Below is the photo and my footprint interpretation of another theropod track from Kamenjak's outcrop just across the Fenoliga islet. There are at least two more prints of the same dinosaur at the site. None of the images above fit to that morphotype. The foot is about 34-38 cm long. I am not sure about the heel: is it all heel or also a drag mark?

Notice the unusual shape of toe #4. At first I had thought it was a substrate deformation due to the footprint pressure, or some sort of a drag mark, but than I saw the other prints had the same feature. Maybe it's not a theropod at all. Maybe it's an ornithopod track.

After all, the emerald sea looks inviting!

An Istrian theropod tracksite destruction in 2012

In the photograph below is a small theropod trackway consisting of four footprints with seemingly rather long heel impression or drag mark (or both). The dinoturbated site is Lovrečica, Istria, Croatia, of the upper Cenomanian age (late Cretaceous). The best preserved footprint #3 shows some considerable damage (the displacement rims are broken off) left by the bulldozer which was working on nearby road construction. Some other tracks at the site were damaged to the even greater extent  and some track baring rocks are missing. The event raised a lot of dust in the daily newspapers in 2012, claiming that some of the tracks were stolen. In my opinion this is a clear case of irresponsibility and negligence towards the geological and natural heritage, by the local construction work investor and the contractor. The local community is to be blamed for not protecting its main natural history attraction. Unfortunately, the damage is irreversible, like usually in such occasions.
The footprints in the photo are about 23-28 cm long (give or take the "heel"). The animal was probably some 3 to 3,5 meters long. The prints marked with the question marks in the diagram are rather speculative.

Some of the sensationalist headlines  in the Croatian media, regarding the tracksite destruction:
Dinosaur tracks stolen with a bulldozer
Dinosaur tracks stolen in Istria using a bulldozer 

The paper where some of the Lovrecica tracks were described in 1998:
 Fabio M. DALLA VECCHIA: THEROPOD FOOTPRINTS IN THE CRETACEOUS ADRIATIC-DINARIC CARBONATE PLATFORM (ITALY AND CROATIA)

In the comparative drawing above are some of the footprints from the Lovrečica outcrop (the scale bar is 10 cm): the middle one is redrawn from Fabio's paper; the right one is from my photograph in this post.

 

My old Nanotyrannus drawing

I don't know when exactly did I make these drawings of Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurid Nanotyrannus lancensis (Bakker, Currie & Williams, 1988), but it was probably sometime in the late 80's or early 90's of the previous century. I think that I used the photographs of the fossil published in Discovery magazine as reference. According to my knowledge at the time, I drew theropods with lizard-like lips.

 

Emperor of the North Pole: A Dwarf Tyrannosaur

A Pygmy tyrannosaur was one of the top predators of the late Cretaceous North America's high latitudes. It is speculated that the diminutive size was an adaptation to the harsh polar climate. There is almost no doubt, although no physical evidence was recovered, that the theropod had been covered with proto-feathers, or so called "dino-fuzz".

A free paper:

 Anthony R. Fiorillo & Ronald S. Tykoski (2014)

A Diminutive New Tyrannosaur from the Top of the World.
PLoS ONE 9(3): e91287.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091287

 Abstract

 "Tyrannosaurid theropods were dominant terrestrial predators in Asia and western North America during the last of the Cretaceous. The known diversity of the group has dramatically increased in recent years with new finds, but overall understanding of tyrannosaurid ecology and evolution is based almost entirely on fossils from latitudes at or below southern Canada and central Asia. Remains of a new, relatively small tyrannosaurine were recovered from the earliest Late Maastrichtian (70-69Ma) of the Prince Creek Formation on Alaska's North Slope. Cladistic analyses show the material represents a new tyrannosaurine species closely related to the highly derived Tarbosaurus+Tyrannosaurus clade. The new taxon inhabited a seasonally extreme high-latitude continental environment on the northernmost edge of Cretaceous North America. The discovery of the new form provides new insights into tyrannosaurid adaptability, and evolution in an ancient greenhouse Arctic."

*****

By the way, one of my favourite old movies:

Emperor of the North Pole (the title was later shortened to Emperor of the North) from 1973. It is an American film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine. The poster for Italian distribution:

Late Cenomanian theropod tracks

  Last year (2013) I finally visited the track site situated on an Istrian natural reserve park the cape "Kamenjak". There are Late Cretaceous (late Santonian) dinosaur tracks all over the place, but the best preserved are on the Grakalovac promontory, on the beach, near the entrance to the park.

A nice medium-sized theropod trackway is marked with ugly black circles (A). My interpretation (B). However, there are more theropod footprints scattered all around. See one in filled with the sediment (C) and my interpretation with a couple of more less preserved prints (D).
The larger tracks that nobody could identify so far, are also marked with black circle. They seem to me like the prints of a fairly large ankylosaur. More about it in the next post.


The Italian paleontologist Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia wrote extensively on the dinosaur fossils in Istria. Here is one of the papers.

Funny looking dinosaurs in vintage comics Part 2

These dinosaur restorations done by the famous American illustrators are not so ridiculous. In fact, they are nice in their own way. However their restorations were already outdated at the time they were painted.

Frank Frazetta's T. rex (I am guessing that's what he featured in the picture above) painting for the cover of  Eerie magazine, is a bit too large; posture too upright; head too box-like; eyes are all wrong and not facing forward; the teeth in the jaws are way too numerous and placed all the way to the corners of the mouth; the hands and fingers too long; the shoulders wrong; the neck unnatural; etc....

I like Richard Corben's much more, although this one is still wrong.

In this splash page Corben used Charles Knight's outdated, but still nice, classic T.rex restoration as a reference.

Charles Knight's classic mural: Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops horridus as "duellists". It served as a reference for so many illustrators for years.

It is ironic, that in fact, until recently, paleo illustrators believed they could restore the life appearance of an adult (or a subadult) T.rex quite accurately in an image or a sculpture.

In 2012 a new species of tyrannosauroid from the Early Cretaceous of China, has been described. The giant Yutyrannus huali was apparently covered with proto feathers, or so called "dino-fuzz".  An obvious dilemma arose: Were other tyranosauroids also covered with feathers, or were the ones that were living in the warmer climate featherless? Like the extinct Woolly Mammoth who was covered with thick, long hair and the modern elephants, which are almost hairless.

My Yutyrannus huali head restoration

Get the free paper here