Ankylosaur tracks : the perfect match

I have said it before and I am saying it now: dinosaurs are a very convincing evidence that continents were connected in the distant past (100 mya). I have found a perfect example. An akylosaur Sauropleta-like footprint shape from the New world matches almost perfectly the footprint I have found near Pula, Istria. The red outline is the Texan ankylosaur ichnospecies from the Mid-Cretaceous. I have placed it on top of the ankylosaur footprint (left pes) photo I took. It is a part of a dinoturbation with several tracks preserved. One of numerous in Pula's vicinity. I have only adjusted the size. The shape is undistorted. It appears as if the same or very similar morphotype: one from the North America and the other from Europe. The footprint is about half a meter long. It was a  giant animal! But I have found even larger ankylosaur footprints measuring over 70cm in length!

The funny story behind this find was that I thought I have found a theropod trackway. Only analysing the photographs back home on my PC, it dawned to me it must have been an ankylosaur. It is the first find of this dinosaur track on the Adriatic Dinaridic Carbonate Platform (ADCP).

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

An ankylosaur trackway destroyed in Pula

I have just returned from a trip to Pula. It is sad, but a few of my photographs is the only thing that has remained of the first ankylosaur trackway in Pula, Croatia (the Adriatic-Dinaridic carbonate platform). I had discovered the tracks in 2011 and I didn't even manage to write the paper. The trackway, which was situated at one of the most frequented beaches in Pula has been covered with a thick layer of concrete for sunbathing. There are more tracks on that particular beach, but just one trackway that runs parallel to this one was preserved enough for research to be conducted. I fear that one is going to be destroyed as well in order to make the beach more comfortable for the numerous tourists. A few years ago I tried to warn the government institution State Institute for Nature Protection about the valuable, numerous trace fossils that are in the danger of being damaged or destroyed, but in vain. This isn't the first case of this kind either. Recently, the theropod trackways have been destroyed and damaged out of ignorance and negligence in Lovrecica, Istria, Croatia. News coverage of that event. That Lovrecica tracksite was even described in a scientific paper and should have been protected.
It is ironic, but I am probably the only person aware of this latest loss.
The "fossil of the fossil"- my photograph of irreversibly lost valuable piece of palaeontological natural heritage in Pula:

Latest news (August 2014): good ones (for now)!
Recently, I've visited this site and discovered that the concrete missed these two tracks (in the photo above) for about a meter. They are still there, but were covered with a muddy water. That's why I didn't see them during my previous visit.