Once again on Grakalovac

The Grakalovac promontory on the south Istrian Cape Kamenjak is famous for his medium sized theropod trackway from the late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Every single footprint of this trackway is encircled by the (ugly) black paint. However, there are many more theropod tracks at the same outcrop, but they are less preserved and less visible. The image at the bottom shows the smaller footprints of a theropod that might have been related to the dromaeosauridae or noasauridae. The toe #2 seems to be reduced and baring a larger claw. But that is only an assumption. The dromaeosaurid tracks are extremely rare. This footprint is about 14,5 cm long.

I have done a bit different interpretation of this track before:

Back to Grakalovac (2)

It is a part of the trackway. However, in my first interpretation, which may be more detailed and better I didn't draw the surrounding poorly preserved prints. Which may be the prints that were placed a bit later, when the substrate was drier.

Some photographs

A photo from my yesterday's bike ride around Ljubljana. This was the end of the path. Even machete wouldn't help me to go through the foliage ahead, so I am turning back to pick up another path for biking.

A piece of "Mesozoic" along my bike ride. The dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides).

Part of the nice path for biking and hiking around Ljubljana.

 From my yesterday's 's bike ride: A suburban jungle with a predatory Felis domesticus.

A giant iguanodontoid track, Pula, Early Cretaceous. The first giant dinosaur track I have discovered in Pula in 2009 was the one partly visible in the left lower corner. At first I thought it was from a giant theropod. Now it seems it belonged to the same iguanodontoid.

A medium size ankylosaur right pes - Main Brijun island, Early Cretaceous (Albian). my interpretation is the green outline.

Poorly preserved small theropod trackways on one of Pula's dinoturbations.

 

  
 Pula beach- Early Cretaceous (Late Albian) - probably a bottom feeding trace of a large fish.

 The Main Brijun island.

Iguanodontoid footprint on the Main Brijun island port pier. Previously it has been interpreted as a theropod track.

An Istrian theropod tracksite destruction in 2012

In the photograph below is a small theropod trackway consisting of four footprints with seemingly rather long heel impression or drag mark (or both). The dinoturbated site is Lovrečica, Istria, Croatia, of the upper Cenomanian age (late Cretaceous). The best preserved footprint #3 shows some considerable damage (the displacement rims are broken off) left by the bulldozer which was working on nearby road construction. Some other tracks at the site were damaged to the even greater extent  and some track baring rocks are missing. The event raised a lot of dust in the daily newspapers in 2012, claiming that some of the tracks were stolen. In my opinion this is a clear case of irresponsibility and negligence towards the geological and natural heritage, by the local construction work investor and the contractor. The local community is to be blamed for not protecting its main natural history attraction. Unfortunately, the damage is irreversible, like usually in such occasions.
The footprints in the photo are about 23-28 cm long (give or take the "heel"). The animal was probably some 3 to 3,5 meters long. The prints marked with the question marks in the diagram are rather speculative.

Some of the sensationalist headlines  in the Croatian media, regarding the tracksite destruction:
Dinosaur tracks stolen with a bulldozer
Dinosaur tracks stolen in Istria using a bulldozer 

The paper where some of the Lovrecica tracks were described in 1998:
 Fabio M. DALLA VECCHIA: THEROPOD FOOTPRINTS IN THE CRETACEOUS ADRIATIC-DINARIC CARBONATE PLATFORM (ITALY AND CROATIA)

In the comparative drawing above are some of the footprints from the Lovrečica outcrop (the scale bar is 10 cm): the middle one is redrawn from Fabio's paper; the right one is from my photograph in this post.