Reviewing the old sites

An interesting and a very rare find yesterday. It looks like it is an EK baby ankylosaur (nodosaurid) footprint on a piece of rock. I've found it near the ankylosaur dinoturbation No 2.

It is only the middle of February. No tourists at the beaches of Pula. Thus the sea is crystal clear.

A theropod track. It is probably from a large dromaeosaurid.

Yesterday: The giant ankylosaur (nodosaurid) footprint - natural cast deteriorated since the last time I had photographed it a couple of years ago. The new tourist signatures are engraved on it as well.

More on Pula ankylosaurs

I have discovered the second site containing ankylosaur tracks (dinoturbation) near Pula about a year after the first one, which is about a kilometre away. It is interesting, but this time I thought I was looking at the single theropod footprint. Yet, it didn't seem right. It didn't look like a typical theropod footprint. Nearby was the second impression, only convex (infilling). The pace angle was too wide for a theropod. I have also noticed there were in fact 5 toe impressions. The print was obviously left by a quadrupedal animal: a large ankylosaur. Later, I have discovered more foot impressions of the same animal, or the animal of the same size.

The red outline of the best preserved impressions in the ankylosaur trackway.

Another foot impression ( right hind foot - pes) of the large Sauropelta-like dinosaur on the same outcrop. This one is not part of the trackway above (red outline is my interpretation).

Click to enlarge.

Comparing the tracks of the living animals with the fossil ones

The dog owners walked their dogs on a leash over this ground in an irregular time sequences, one or two at the time. This case illustrates the consequentially of drawing some behavioural conclusions exclusively based on the fossil trackways. Since the tracks in this image are directional (from left to the right and in the opposite direction) and are of the same morphotype (although, they were left by the dogs of the various breed), if these were say, the fossil tracks of some dinosaurs, an enthusiastic paleontologist might jump to a conclusion these were left at the same time by the herd of  animals of various growth stages. Thus implying a gregarious behaviour and even care for their young. Of course, I don't claim the evidence like this should be dismissed in a behavioural research of the fossil animals, but to be cautious in drawing the conclusions.

Dog's trackway in a shallow snow (last Winter). Note the drag marks. Apparently, the drag mark (from the two middle claws of both the front and the hind limbs) is made on two occasions: when the foot has been closing in to meet the ground and also on the way up when the foot was in the process of raising from the ground. Some paleontologists might have interpreted the similar traces in dinosaurs as tail dragging. The dog was going from right to the left.

This ankylosaur trackway from Pula is about 50-60 meters long with mostly poorly preserved footprints. Unfortunately some of the footprints have been lost forever due to the covering with the concrete to make place for sunbathing (this is a tourist resort). At the end of the trackway there are some individual footprints of an animal of giant proportions. The ankylosaurs that left the tracks were probably of a Polacanthinae type.

The left pes footprint is quite nicely visible in the left lower part of the photograph. The one that is a bit higher to the right is poorly preserved. These are positives (casts). The manus prints were preserved only on a couple of places.
There's also another ankylosaur outcrop a couple of km away with some very nicely preserved tracks (see some of the previous posts in my blog). The ankylosaur trackways are quite rare. One of the reasons might be that they are being miss interpreted, because they can easily be mistaken for ornithopod or sauropod tracks. To tell you the truth I first thought these were left by iguanodontoids and sauropods. At the other site I even thought initially, that I have been looking at the theropod tracks. Only later it dawned to me it was an ankylosaur trackway.

 The sites are still not described. I am the only one that knows about these, although this is a tourist beach. they are not easy to notice.

Sauropod trackway (Pula 2009)

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Dangerous waters: A crock farm in Thailand (November/ 2013)

The tracks again

A couple of shallow large theropod footprints sticking below the rock. (125 mya) The Main Brijun island.

A dinosaur trackway in Pula (100 mya) probably a large theropod.

 "Is that a dinosaur track on the bottom?"

A probable large fish feeding trace in Pula.

 A strange oval impression in Pula. Might be from a jellyfish.

Jellyfish are still abundant.

 Desperately trying to escape the fierce theropod.

 The wing of a "modern theropod". It is interesting to see how the feathers are attached to the wing of an ostrich.

 More ripple marks of a different pattern and an oval impression as a positive (Pula).

 A large theropod trackway (Main Brijun island).

 Several footprints of some messy large theropods left on the beach about 125 mya.

An early Cretaceous outcrop in Pula.

 A poorly preserved dinosaur trackway near Pula ( a large theropod?)

 Some nice 100 million years old ripple marks from Pula.

A Yeti or a Sasquatch footprint? No way. This is from Pula and it is 100 million years old. This looks like a dinosaur track to me. A very interesting track! If it is a dino track I am speculating about an ankylosaur footprint with a skidding trace. The ankylosaur dinoturbation was just around the corner. I am not sure about this one, because this is a lone one. However, the shape and the size of this "footprint" are similar to the ones from the dinoturbation.

Having epiphany, but lacking camera

It was a nice long weekend in Pula. It was a bit too hot and humid but on a bright side the water was warm and pleasant for snorkeling. I had an epiphany on a rocky beach we frequented over the years. While waiting to get dry enough to take our clothes on after swimming I took a good lock at the rock we were standing on. It was full of small theropod tracks! They were poorly preserved, faint and hardly detectable, but they were there! I managed finding a couple of trackways consisting of three consecutive tracks of the same animal in each trackway. Unfortunately, I didn't bring camera with me and we were soon to take our trip back to Ljubljana.

Some nice strong current ripples. The layer has been uncovered recently, so it looks like the tide has receded and left these traces just hours ago. In fact, it was about 100 million years ago.

Why do I hate ripple marks? Because they can trick you into thinking that you have found a dinosaur track! It is tough to be certain in a case like this.

Nice old ripple marks (100 million years old!)

A poorly preserved theropod trackway (Pula). Something is strange about this footprint. It seems like it lacks toe #2 or that it is very short (?) Could it be a dromaeosaurid? The theropod tracks in Pula that could be attributed to this group of dinosaurs are extremely rare. At the time (Early Cretaceous) Istria (ADCP) was probably attached to the Afro-Arabian continent.
 

A giant saurood trackway (Pula)

A small salt pond In Pula

Above: A nice natural cast footprint of a medium-sized ankylosaur (Pula)

Living on the hedge!

This looks like a sauropod pes track... or on the second look it may be an iguanodontoid track.. I'll have to check on this one.

I can see some tracks here ... hmmm..or do I?

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.

 

 

 

 

A few photographs from Istria

A juvenile sea gull is posing for my camera (Portorose, Istria, Slovenia).

A large Medusa swimming near the Main Brijun Island (Istria, Croatia).

A nice sauropod track from the Late Albian (Early Cretaceous) of Pula. It is the right manus/pes set of the Brontopodus type.

A dwarf sauropod trackway (probably Titanosaurimanus nana, Dalla Vecchia and Tarlao 2000) at the Solaris oucrop (Istria, Croatia)

Nice large Early Cretaceous ripple marks on Pula beach.

A dinosaur footprint, probably a large theropod on Pula outcrop.

Lovrečica Cenomanian track baring outcrop. One of the theropod tracks is visible in the photograph.

A right pes track of apparently enormous anklyosaur at one of the Pula's ankylosaur dinoturbations. Sauropelta pes outline from Carpenter is on the right. The animals seem to have been gregarious. Beside a few gigantic prints there are at least two parallel trackways of somewhat smaller ankylosaurs.

The right pes of much smaller ankylosaur (but still large) from the same Pula outcrop. The length of the pes is about 45 cm. The length of the larger one was in the range of 70-75 cm.

A sunset in Pula.