The cliffs of Pula

There seems to be a small tridactyl footprint on this grey rocks. Possibly by an ornithopod.

A look at one of Pula's outcrops that is also dinoturbated.

Some nice Mid-Cretaceous ripple marks with some poorly preserved dinosaur tracks.

A sauropod vertebra on display in Bale museum. It was recovered from the Barremian undersea bone yard.

Nice optical effects in the shallows.

Pula titanosaur tracks

The titanosaur sauropod tracks are perhaps the most common on the Pula beaches. Here are a few examples. However, the circle in the top photograph might in fact be a concretion.

 

A small theropod footprint is shaped a bit strange. A pterosaur footprint is near by, but not visible in this photo.

Paleoart odds and ends

About 16 or 17 years ago, while surfing the ancient Internet, I have accidentally found a set of 9 postal stamps from Republique du Niger. To my great surprise,
6 of the images were ripped off my web site. Several online philatelist sites were selling them legally. I never got credited, let alone paid nor even got a sample of my used artwork. Although, I have filed a protest, after which some of the of the distributors stopped selling them online. The two b/w images are from the NHM in NY and the last one is by my friend Brian Franczak.

Back to tracks

This is in fact the first iguanodontoid track I have discovered in Pula (above). My interpretation on the right (the red outline). Note the size compared to my big feet (# 46). It is Late Albian - Mid-Cretceous (about 100 mya). The same rock surface is dinoturbated mostly by large iguanodontoids and sauropods. Also, it is weathered, due to the vicinity of the open sea.

A bit smaller "Iggy" track I have discovered about a kilometre further down the beach (resort in Pula)

  A nice manus pes set track of a large pterosaur I have found on the same beach as the Iggy in the top photograph. There are three pterosaur trackways on that spot.

 A dinoturbated rock. Probably by the ankylosaurs whose trackways I have found near by. (Pula - Late Albian)

A small titanosaur left pes track. It was probably a subadult. The outcrop is heavily dinoturbated by the very large sauropods, theropods and ornithopods. Late Albian of Pula.

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?

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.

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.

 

A sauropod right pes on a building block

 A sauropod right pes on a building block of the Early Cretaceous limestone at the pier near Pula (Istria, Croatia)

I don't remember if I said it before, but Istria has been literary "littered" with the Mesozoic fossils. The dinosaur tracks can be considered as numerous and omnipresent. Which doesn't mean they are easy to find by laymen. One has to learn distinguishing them from common artifacts. The limestone erosion is prone to forming very rich array of shapes.

So, here I am, walking along the beach and looking for some familiar shapes. I get awarded quite often. Here is a nice sauropod (probably a titanosaur) right hind foot print on a building block. The production process in the quarry left it in a rather good shape. Although, the block looks slightly "flawed" because of the dinosaur impression. The photograph was taken on February 15th 2014. Red outline helps you visualise the print. There is a low displacement rim in front of the track, where it should be. The pes measures about 60 cm in length, representing a decent size track maker sauropod. The largest sauropod hind footprints I've found there measure about 130-140 cm in length. Those were true giants! 

Finding dinosaur tracks on building blocks is not that rare either. I've found many myself. Some of the tracks were found by Dalla Vecchia, as described in his paper.

A new titanosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China

(Image credit: University of Pennsylvania)

 A fossil of a new sauropod titanosaur, Yongjinglong datangi, has been discovered in northwestern China by University of Pennsylvania paleontologists. The dinosaur lived some 100 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. The estimated length of this juvenile sauropod was about 20 meters. Adult animal of this species were probably larger.
The research was led by doctoral student Liguo Li and professor Peter Dodson.

Liguo Li: "The shoulder blade was very long, nearly 2 meters, with sides that were nearly parallel, unlike many other Titanosaurs whose scapulae bow outward." 

The dinosaur's vertebrae had large cavities in the interior. The research team believes the large cavities in dinosaur's vertebrae contained  air sacs.

Peter Dodson:
 "These spaces are unusually large in this species. It's believed that dinosaurs, like birds, had air sacs in their trunk, abdominal cavity and neck as a way of lightening the body." Image: University of Pennsylvania

 My restoration of  Yongjinglong datangi

Peter Dodson :
  "...Not only does the discovery point to the fact that Titanosaurs encompass a diverse group of dinosaurs, but it also supports the growing consensus that sauropods were a dominant group in the Early Cretaceous — a view that U.S. specimens alone could not confirm.
Based on U.S. fossils, it was once thought that sauropods dominated herbivorous dinosaur fauna during the Jurassic but became almost extinct during the Cretaceous," Dodson said. "We now realise that, in other parts of the world, particularly in South America and Asia, sauropod dinosaurs continued to flourish in the Cretaceous, so the thought that they were minor components is no longer a tenable view."
 (citation from;  http://www.science20.com/)

 BDW:
 Indeed, while researching the late Albian ichnofauna near Pula, Istria, which is roughly the same age as this Chinese titanosaur, I came to the similar conclusion. Sauropods were large and their tracks abundant in the coastal intertidal environment. They were apparently, competing for food with giant iguanodontoids and ankylosaurs.

Paper:   Li L-G, Li D-Q, You H-L, Dodson P (2014) A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from the Hekou Group (Lower Cretaceous) of the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin, Gansu Province, China. PLoS ONE 9(1): e85979.
 The whole paper is here free for download.