Dinosaur Tracks as Paleogeographic Constraints: New Scenarios for the Cretaceous Geography of the Periadriatic Region

Abstract

A really unexpected finding of sauropod and theropod footprints in southern Latium raises to four the number of the trampled levels recognized in central and southern Italy. After the recent findings in Latest Jurassic and Early, mid and Late Cretaceous carbonate platform deposits of the Periadriatic region, dinosaur footprints seem to provide very important paleogeographic constraints for reconstructing the geodynamic history of the Mediterranean area. The presence of a varied ichnoassociation makes acceptance of the current paleogeographic models concerning the relative and absolute position of the Laziale-Abruzzese-Campano and of Apulian-Dinaric domains during the Late Cretaceous more and more problematic. Dinosaur footprints, combined with other paleontological data, demonstrate that these areas were never completely pulled apart by deep seaways, while frequent or continuous links between them, and to southern and northern mainlands, probably persisted. These data also allowed us to improve our understanding of the timing of the Mesozoic plate motion in this segment of the Western Tethys.

A new species of Acynodon (Crocodylia) from the upper cretaceous (Santonian–Campanian) of Villaggio del Pescatore, Italy

“…As for the size of the emerged lands, if the reduced size of the dinosaurs inhabiting the post‐Barremian peri‐Adriatic carbonatic platforms reported by some authors (Dalla Vecchia 2003 a, b ; and literature therein) could suggest evolution in a relatively small archipelago, the possible influence of taphonomical biases, as suggested by Le Loeuff (2005) for the Transylvanian ‘dwarf’ dinosaurs, does not permit any approximate estimation. Interestingly, Nicosia et al. (2007, p. 87) recently suggested, on the basis of the vertebrate fossils and ichnofossils of the periadriatic region, the presence of a ‘pre‐Campanian link from Istria to southern Europe’.…”

Dinosaur footprints from the Lower Cretaceous of the Algarve Basin (Portugal): New data on the ornithopod palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of the Iberian Peninsula

“…The tidal-flat and carbonate inner-shelf domains reported for the Algarve Basin were, therefore, directly connected to the open ocean and did not allow any landvertebrate migrations. Nevertheless, several authors have supported the possibility of the existence of a route across the Apulian Plate (Nicosia et al, 2007;Petti et al 2008;Sacchi et al, 2009;Torcida Fernández-Baldor et al, 2011) at least since the Late Barremian and during the Aptian (Canudo et al, 2009), when shallow carbonate shelves were widespread between this area and North Africa. A better understanding of European ornithopod palaeo biogeography is needed to determine whether or not this interpretation can be substantiated.…”

Paleoenvironmental framework of dinosaur tracksites and other ichnofossils in Early Cretaceous mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposits in the Neuquén Basin, northern Patagonia (Argentina)

“…Nicosia et al, 2007), British Columbia in Canada (Zonneveld et al, 2001), the Bighorn Basin in USA (Kvale et al, 2001) and the Early Cretaceous of the peri-Adriatic Basin (Sacchi et al, 2009;Petti et al, 2010). Interestingly, in the Mediterranean basins dinosaur tracks have been used as an unequivocal evidence of exposure of carbonate platforms that questioned previous paleogeographic reconstructions between southern Europe and Africa during the Jurassic-Cretaceous (Zarcone et al, 2010).…”