The sauropod trackways

The sauropod trackways I have discovered in 2012

Tracks, tracks again

A mid-Cretaceous layer from the Solaris outcrop, with mud cracks and a possible dinosaur track. The ripple marks on a lower layer. I was standing on the rock that was about 80 cm above the layer with the mud cracks.

A possible sauropod track with my interpretative outline (Albian near Pula)

 A probable sauropod track

A pebbly beach, Pula.

 Some parallel sauropod trackways near Pula.

 Recent dog tracks showing varieties in preservation.

 Lovrečica: a damaged theropod trackway. A buldozer went over them during some construction works.

 Lovrečica: a theropod track.

 Some unusual traces from a Pula beach.

 Sauropod tracks near Pula.

 Theropod tracks (Pula)

 Cliffs (Pula)

 Rudists (Pula)

 A beach in Pula

More from Pula

 Continuing the new tracks discoveries in Pula. This is a titanosaur right pes print.  The shape is consistent with the morphotype I have found elsewhere.

This footprint is not easy to notice, but it might be a pterosaur footprint. Notice that the water flow ripples go diagonally in the direction of the right upper corner of the photograph, while the footprint is placed vertically. The heel impression is down.

Here is another footprint I would probably assign to a pterosaur. However, this morphotype is somewhat different from the one I have seen in other places on this beach. No manus impression is preserved. One possible explanation is that it is in fact a footprint left by a plantigrade mammal.

A rather bizarre looking footprint of a theropod (left one). The middle toe looks fat and relatively long and the toe #2 left a deep impression of a relatively large claw.

Pula's beaches are also rich with flora.

... and fauna.

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)

*****************


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

A puzzling feature in giant Early Cretaceous sauropod tracks in Pula

If you look carefully at the photographs I have shot on a Pula beach you'll probably notice  puzzling feature in giant Early Cretaceous sauropod tracks (Brontopodus). It appears that the footprints of the front feet (manus) were closer to the mid-line of the animal's body than the footprints of the hind feet (pes). The pes length impression is about 105 cm.

Is this the right manus/pes set? Notice the relatively small size of the typical crescent shape manus.The manus was preserved as an infilling (natural cast) while the pes is the true impression. In the image bellow both manus and pes were preserved as infillings (natural casts)

... and is this the left manus/pes set, or am I seeing it wrong and it's the opposite?
Anyway, if I am right, these tracks suggest that the giant Pula sauropod had very slender front limbs and very robust hind legs. The hips were much wider than the shoulders. The impressions of the front feet were often not or less preserved. The gait must have been somewhat similar to the gait of the modern giraffe, which also has a bit wider hips than shoulders so the impressions of the front feet are a tad closer to the mid body line than those of the hind feet.  The longest pes print of the Pula sauropod I have found and measured was about 130-140 cm. That was some truly huge titanosaur that must have measured at least 30-35 meters in length.
Here is a link for  Giraffe Walk

A couple of different photographs

One of the photographs I took a couple of years ago, showing dwarf sauropod and theropod tracks at the Solaris (fkk auto camp) Early Cretaceous (Late Albian) outcrop.

For a change of pace: Here is a photograph of the Oligocene plant fossils I have collected near Zagorje ob Savi (Slovenia) many years ago. A toxodium branch (left) and a laurel leaf (right). The area was obviously a cypress swamp.

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.

Back to Grakalovac (1)

When tracks and traces are in question, best thing to do is to visit the sites more than once, preferably under different weather conditions, different time of day and different season. Especially in the case of poorly preserved and faint, barely visible tracks, the repeated visits will produce often surprising results. What's more important, the multiple observations will produce better results that are closer to the true. That said and after making new photographs, my Grakalovac (Kamenjak) giant thyreophoran is unlikely.
On this photograph taken from the official Kamenjak park site, the low sunshine implies multiple smaller prints instead of a single giant one. Yet, it is hard to determine their maker. They might be from a sauropod, like suggested in papers by Dalla Vecchia, Mezga and Bajraktarevic. Also, they might belong to a slowly moving ornithopod or a quadrupedal thyreophoran, or something entirely different. We'll probably never know for sure. The prints are rather inconsistent in shape and pace. The only thing that is certain about them is that they were made by a tetrapod. Maybe it wasn't just one animal, although, the grouping of the prints is suggesting that.

Here is my recent photograph of the "mysterious" Grakalovac prints, with my red outline interpretation/speculation. After analysing the photograph, this time it seems to me, there are a couple of small quadrupeds. Maybe the baby sauropods or really small pygmy sauropods whose tracks are mixed with the medium-sized ornithopod (green outline) who crossed this mini dinoturbation spot a bit later, when the substrate dried up a bit. But still the "ornithopod" slightly obliterated trackways left by the parallel walking "sauropods". The red arrow shows the direction of the tracks. Still, the tracks are so poorly preserved that my interpretation is highly speculative. You might have noticed that visually this mini dinoturbation suggested different direction of movement than my interpretation.

To my relief, I have found some theropod footprints close to this spot and there's no doubt about the trackmaker's foot shape and size. In the photograph below is one of the prints of the "cute" theropod with a foot 16,5 cm long (the animal was probably around 2 meters long).
The impression of the halux (toe #1) is clearly visible (forward oriented) as well as the claw prints on all the other toes.