A theropod track from Pula

  

A theropod track from Pula

Here is an interesting shape of the large theropod footprint from Pula (Albian - early Cretaceous), I have found recently. At the first sight it looks like some giant bird's track. In fact it is the collapsed mud/sand impression that was probably partially washed away by the tide (the outcrop features the long low crested ripple marks). The possible second footprint is only barely visible in front and a bit to the right from the first one in the photograph. The length of the track is about 46 cm. The animal was probably some 6 to 6,5 meters long.

The same outcrop has preserved the small theropod prints; the giant pterosaur manus prints; small and medium sized pterosaur footprints; medium-sized sauropod tracks and huge iguanodontoid footprints.

More on sauropod tracks

 In 2009 I have discovered one of the dinoturbated sites near Pula. Since that time, I managed researching several more similar sites along the beach there. In the picture is a suropod footprint (Brontopodus sp.) that was surprisingly well preserved in 3D. You probably remember playing in a wet sand as a kid. The sand had to be wet and of the precisely right consistence and you had to be very careful while making a cast of your plastic dish or it would have collapsed right away. The sauropod cast was originally a negative footprint, that served as a mold. It was filled in with the sediment ( wet rudistic sand) brought by a rising tide, after the original substrate containing the impression dried and hardened a bit. Both sediments were eventually buried under more sediments and lithified.

In recent times, the sea eroded off the upper sedimenst freeing the cast.

The mid-Cretaceous (late Albian) subadult sauropod (titanosaur) right hind footprint cast (positive) from the dinoturbated beach area, which is full of tourists in the Summer time (A).  The same print in false colours to enhance the shape (C). My interpretative drawing of the impression (D).

The negative of the left hind sauropod footprint, which was probably left by the same animal and was the part of the same trackway. The little black bag measures 13cm in length (B).

The adult animal had a foot that measured some 140 cm in length.

 

The new sensational Cretaceous bird (repost)

Although, I know that many birds and dinosaur-birds lived alongside dinosaurs some 125 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous, I always get surprised by the new discoveries. How come the ancient birds looked so advanced and modern as early as  that?
The newly described Chinese fossil bird Hongshanornis longicresta wouldn't make you turn your head if it flew by you. It seemed so common. Only a closer look, a very close look, would reveal that it had tiny teeth in the front of its beak and claws on it's wings.
A couple of years ago I was engaged in a project of producing and mounting a theropod  sculpture on the famous and rich Barremian track site on the Main Brijun island in Croatia. The tracks are roughly of the same age as the Chinese Jehol bird fossil. There are theropod tracks of various sizes at the site. The largest footprints measure about 60-65 cm in length. I have also noticed a large crock footprint, iguanodontoid tracks and possibly a pterosaur footprint there.

The sculpture at the Main Brijun Barremian tracksite by the the team of artists: sculptors Stjepan Gracan and Bozica Dea Matasic; painting and mounting by painter Zlatko Kauzlaric Atac; cconsulting and preliminary drawings by Berislav Krzic. It took almost 3 years for the sculpture to be produced and mounted at the track site in 2012: 

More photographs of the M. Brijun theropod sculpture 

My preliminary drawing of Eocarcharia (meaning "dawn shark") a  carcharodontosaurid theropod
dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous as a possible track maker and a reference for the sculptor (2006).

A couple of theropod footprints at the  Veli (Main) Brijun Barremian site (125 mya) (photo credit: Berislav Krzic):

Here is my restoration of the ancient bird Hongshanornis longicresta:

 You can read more about the bird's find here:
National Geographic
... or if you are interested more, here is the free scientific paper:
 A new specimen of the Early Cretaceous bird Hongshanornis longicresta: insights into the aerodynamics and diet of a basal ornithuromorph