Naslov
First record of the dinosaurs in the Late Jurassic sediments of Istria, Croatia (preliminary report)

Autori
Mezga, Aleksandar ; Bajraktarević, Zlatan ; Cvetko Tešović, Blanka ; Gušić, Ivan

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
1st EAVP Meeting, Abstracts of papers and posters with program / Meyer, Christian A. ; Engesser Burkart - Basel : Natural History Museum Basel, 2003

Skup
1st European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontology Meeting

Mjesto i datum
Basel, Švicarska, 15.07.2003. - 19.07.2003

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
dinosaur tracks; sauropods; Late Jurassic; Istria

Sažetak
All the fossil remains of dinosaurs on the Adriatic carbonate platform (which is now outcropping along the eastern margin of the Adriatic Sea) came from the Cretaceous sediments. Among these remains are the numerous sites with dinosaur footprints and bones, the oldest find to date came from a Hauterivian layers. The new locality with the dinosaur footprints have been discovered recently. The age of the trackbearing sediment is dated as Upper Tithonian and represent the oldest proof of dinosaur presence on the Adriatic carbonate platform. The site is situated on an active quarry front near the village Kirmenjak in the central Istria (Croatia). The site is very rich in footprints, some few hundreds of them have been found on the outcrop. The majority of the footprints shows an oval or horse-shoed shape without clearly visible digit impressions and are relatively shallow (10-20 mm). Although the state of preservation is far from ideal, it is concluded that the prints belong to the sauropod dinosaurs regarding morphology. The oval shaped prints would respond to the pes prints and the horse-shoe shaped ones to the manus prints. The footprints are of the various dimensions, manus prints show the length range between 100 – 250 mm, pes prints between 350 – 500 mm. The calculated height at the hip ranged between 2.06 - 2.95 m. A dozens of trackways can be observed on the outcrop and they overlapped frequently. There are also some areas which are heavily trampled by sauropod foots. The main direction of dinosaur movements is E-NE and because there are a number of parallel trackways it could be concluded that some of the individuals were moving together (indication of gregarious behaviour). A large number of the trackways dissapeared below the quarry surface and probably extends further. Some of the trackways show characteristics of a narrow-gauge type, some of them are slightly wider but none shows the wide-gauge character. The pace and stride lengths indicate a slow walk of the individuals. The ichnocoenosis from this outcrop could be assigned to the Brontopodus ichnofacies which is characterized by sauropod footprints in the carbonate platform environment. The presence of the large sauropod dinosaurs on the Adriatic carbonate platform during the Upper Jurassic could be explained by its connection with the African continent via the southern margins. The sauropods could have migrated in the area during the emersion phase when the platform was going through a land stage. There has to been a widespread continental area in order to support a survival of such a large terrestrial herbivores as the sauropod dinosaurs.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Geologija

POVEZANOST RADA