A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has found about 50 dinosaur tracks, in what used to be a warm and muddy lagoon on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The tracks date from the middle Jurassic, about 170 million years ago.
This treasure trove of dinosaur footprints may help shed light on an important period in dinosaur evolution. Traces date back to the Middle Jurassic, a time frame with few fossil records.
The find took place at Rubha nam Brathairean (or Brother’s point) on the Isle of Skye, and contains many incredibly well-preserved dinosaur tracks. Most of them belong to sauropods, long-necked herbivores like Brachiosaurus, but there are also tracks from theropods like Tyrannosaurus , gathering around what was once a shallow lagoon.
Dinosaur fossils from this period in history, 174-164 million years ago are rare, but the Isle of Skye is one of the few places where they can be found.
These records are crucial, because this is an important time in the evolutionary history of dinosaurs, making the lack of fossils from the Middle Jurassic frustrating for paleontologists.
“This was an important time in the evolution [of dinosaurs], when the first birds probably reached the skies, the first carnivorous tyrannosaurs and stegosaurus with plates diversified, and the long-necked sauropods began to grow to colossal sizes.” , the researchers noted in the Scottish Journal of Geology.
The area is in an isolated place, battered by the sea and inclement weather ; erosion processes and changes in the landscape have made some of the prints difficult to find and identify. However, despite this, they have managed to identify two footprint paths and many isolated impressions.
Based on the shapes of these prints, captured with drones and cameras, the researchers found that they were made from both more rounded sauropod legs and three-toed bird-like theropod feet. They found that the largest track was around 70 centimeters wide, left by a sauropod, while the largest theropod track was around 50 centimeters wide.
The exact species have yet to be identified, but the researchers believe that at least some of the sauropod tracks belong to the ichnotaxon Breviparopus. Other theropod tracks have also been assigned to an ichnotaxon – Eubrontes.
“These footprints represent the second discovery of sauropod tracks on Skye,” explained lead author Paige dePolo, “demonstrating the presence of sauropods in this part of the world over a longer time scale than previously known. This site is a useful building block for us to further develop a picture of what dinosaurs were like on Skye in the Middle Jurassic, “he concludes.
Researchers have also found two more areas of footprints at Brothers’ Point, which will be detailed in future publications.
Referencia: A sauropod-dominated tracksite from Rubha nam Brathairean (Brothers’ Point), Isle of Skye, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 2018 DOI: 10.1144/sjg2017-016
Image credit: Paige dePolo, Steve Brusatte.
