A theropod track from Solaris outcrop

"The field work in the late Albian track site of the Solaris Campground near Cervera/Červar (Torre/Tar municipality, Istria, Croatia) was undertaken during the years 1995-96 thanks to a grant of The Dinosaur Society and the collaboration of the local authorities. The field work at the site has been described in DALLA VECCHIA (1996). A description of the site before the cleaning of the main footprint-bearing surface and its detailed mapping and description can be seen in DALLA VECCHIA (1994). The detailed description has been published by DALLA VECCHIA et al. (2000)."
What's interesting about the Solaris track sites is that they are represented with relatively small dinosaur tracks. Dalla Vecchia speculates that the dinosaurs were of a diminutive size due to their habitat. They lived isolated on an island, whose resources couldn't provide for the "full-size" large dinosaurs that inhabited the mainlands. On the other hand, although roughly from the same age and just some 40-50km away, dinosaur tracks from Pula beaches are of many size classes, the biggest of which are among the world record breakers.

In the image below, you can see one of small theropod tracks from the Solaris beach. Red outline is my interpretation. This one wasn't described in any paper, yet.

There is probably more than one footprint in this image, but I have outlined only the best one.

More nature

Mudcracks at the Solaris outcrop, with a probable dinosaur track, possibly ornithopod. Early Cretaceous (Albian) — Porec, Solaris fkk auto camp.

 Pula, Early Cretaceous (Albian), probable ankylosaur trackway.

 

 

 

 

The first nudists on Solaris beach

Actually, the heading of this post is probably erroneous, because the small to mid-sized theropods were almost certainly not naked, but dressed up in their fancy "dino fuzz". However, there's no question about it that they were the first ones to occupy these wonderful beaches near Porec, around 100 million years ago (late Albian, Early Cretaceous). Fact is that the countless dinosaur tracks "litter" the long beach of the large Istrian naturist resort  Solaris.
To take these photographs without being surrounded by the naked people, I had to visit the site in December.
See one of my previous posts: "Small sauropod footprints at the beach" for more information.
In the photograph, you can see the "messy dinosaurs" again. There are numerous footprints in this image alone, in various states of preservation. I tried to outline the best ones. The largest theropod prints measure some 28-29 cm in length. So, I presume the animal was up to 4 meters long.
In the centre, there is a brown outline of what seems to be a small ornithopod. I think this print is not what it seems (see my post about the tracks on Kamenjak). In fact, this is just the mid section of the theropod track that got preserved in the "paleo-sand". Of course, the tracks were left in a fine wet sand, which is now a hard carbonate rock.

Happy International Labour Day!

Small sauropod footprints at the beach (2)

Here is one of the sauropod tracks on the limestone beach near the city of Pula. The length of the pes in the photograph is almost 80 cm, while the sauropod pes from the same age Solaris outcrop photo (see my previous post) is about 30 cm long. The largest sauropod footprints near Pula are about 120-130 cm long. It is interesting that in this track set the manus is a positive (cast) while the pes is concave.

Small sauropod footprints at the beach

Presented here in the photograph are the three small sauropod footprints, each one facing different direction. So they do not belong to the same trackway. The one in the middle is less preserved. This is from the Solaris late Albian Istrian site where Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia described and named the ichnospecies: Titanosaurimanus nana*.
The best defined print in the photograph (on the right) is very similar in shape to the sauropod prints I have found near the city of Pula. Fabio concluded the fauna of Solaris compound consisted of dwarf dinosaurs. However, the tracks I have discovered near Pula (Pola) were significantly larger.

* 
New Dinosaur track sites in the Albian (Early Cretaceous) of the Istrian Peninsula (Croatia).
FORWARD. This contribution is the first of a series of papers which we wish to dedicate to the results of the detailed study of the Cretaceous paleoichnological sites cropping out in the Periadriatic Carbonate platforms and follows several prelimiary ic


Nominativo Autori    DALLA VECCHIA F.M., TARLAO A., TUNIS G., VENTURINI S.
Anno    2000
Titolo    New Dinosaur track sites in the Albian (Early Cretaceous) of the Istrian Peninsula (Croatia).
Rivista    MEM.SCI.GEOL.
Edizione    DIPARTIMENTO DI GEOLOGIA,PALEONTOLOGIA E GEOFISICA DELL'UNIV.DI PADOVA,2000.
Serie Volume    52/2:193-292
Illustrazioni    FIGG.75, TABB.10, 1 PL.
Parole chiave / Key words     PALEONTOLOGIA, CRETACICO, VERTEBRATA

Riassunto / Abstract    FORWARD. This contribution is the first of a series of papers which we wish to dedicate to the results of the detailed study of the Cretaceous paleoichnological sites cropping out in the Periadriatic Carbonate platforms and follows several prelimiary ichnological descriptions (e.g. Dalla Vecchia, 1994; 1996; 1997a,b, 1998b; Dalla Vecchia and Tarlao, 1995). Despite that the presence of dinosaur footprints in the Istrian sector of the Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform was known since 1925 (Bachofen-Echt, 1925a,b), until very recent years nobody fully understood the great significance of this presence under the paleobiological, paleoecological and paleogeographical point of view. Dinosaur footprints reveal also the potential that these fossil traces may have for aiding sedimentological and modern stratigraphic analysis, such as the cyclostratigraphy. Multidisciplinary study of the sediments and traces yeld fundamental information about the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the different sites. In many cases recognition of subaerial episodes may be possible only because dinosaur prints were found. The number of sites with dinosaur evidence in the Cretaceous Periadriatic Carbonate platforms increased dramatically during the last years, particularly in the northern sector of the Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform (Fig. 1). The names of the sites are given in Croatian and Italian (the latter in Italics) in order to indicate both the actual names and those to be found in italian literature and topography of the region. Footprints have been found in the upper Hauterivian, upper Barremian, upper Albian and upper Cenomanian of Istrian peninsula, where also late Hauterivian-early Barremian bones were discovered (Boscarolli et al., 1993; Dalla Vecchia, 1998a). The Istrian levels containing bones are located in a large depression filled with marginal and open lacustrine carbonates (Dini et al., 1998). Dinosaur footprints are present also in the upper Hauterivian of the Cansiglio Plateau of NE Italy (Dalla Vecchia and Venturini, 1995; Dalla Vecchia, 1999) and in the Senonian of Murge, S Italy. Important discoveries of complete dinosaur skeletons and scattered bones and teeth have been done in the lower Albian of Pietraroja (S Italy) (Dal Sasso and Signore, 1998), and in the upper Santonian and Campanian/Maastrichtian of Karst, NE Italy and Slovenia. This paper concerns track sites of late Albian age found in two localities of western coast of Istria, respectively Solaris camp site, near Cervera/Cervar, Tar municipality (NW Istria) and Puntisella /Puntizela, near Fasana/Fazana (SW Istria). The paleoichnological field work in the Solaris camp site was possible thanks to a grant of the late The Dinosaur Society, which permitted to collect a lot of data and, in particular, to execute a detailed map of the site and the casting of several footprints. For this reason, the present contribution is particularly "conspicuous" and had to be divided into two parts. The first concerns the aspects most related to sedimentology and stratigraphy (authored by Giorgio Tunis and Sandro Venturini), the second (by Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia and Alceo Tarlao) is dedicated mainly to paleoichnology and paleobiological-paleogeographical aspects.