New Late Cretaceous (Coniacian) sauropod tracks from Hvar Island, Croatia

Péter Solt,Attila Ősi,Andrea Szuromi-Korecz

doi:10.1556/24.2020.00001

Abstract

AbstractIn June 2017 a new sauropod trackway locality was discovered in the central part of the Adriatic–Dinaric Carbonate Platform (ADCP), on the island of Hvar (Croatia). The track site is situated on the northern shore of the western edge (Pelegrin) of the island in the upper Turonian – lower Coniacian limestone series. The track site contains altogether 13 footprints arranged in four possible trackways. The largest footprints have a diameter up to 80 cm. In some places the limestone surface is strongly karstified and the tracks are partly eroded, which has certainly modified the original shape and size of the footprints. Microfossil assemblage from the track-bearing beds suggest an early Coniacian age for the tracks. The new trackways on Hvar Island further strengthen the earlier hypothesis that sauropods were present in the western Tethyan archipelago during the late Cenomanian–late Campanian period. In addition, the new tracks, together with those from the Žukova Cove of Hvar, represent two, possibly slightly different stratigraphic horizons close to the Turonian–Coniacian boundary, and suggest that the occurrence of sauropods on the ADCP and possibly also on other parts of the Apulian microplate was not accidental, but rather periodical and more frequent than previously thought.

Highlights

The Adriatic–Dinaric Carbonate Platform (ADCP) was a critical area in terms of Cretaceous faunal interchanges of the western Tethyan archipelago (Dalla Vecchia 2002; Pereda-Suberbiola 2009; Csiki-Sava et al 2015), dinosaur fossils from this region are poorly known
In June 2017 a new sauropod trackway locality was discovered in the central part of the Adriatic– Dinaric Carbonate Platform (ADCP), on the island of Hvar (Croatia)
As far as body fossils are concerned, significant dinosaur remains are known from Hauterivian–Barremian sediments lying a few meters below the Adriatic Sea level, close to Bale (Vale) in Istria (Boscarolli et al 1993; Kozaric et al 1996; Dalla Vecchia, 1998a, 2001; Boscarolli and Dalla Vecchia 1999)

Summary

Introduction

The Adriatic–Dinaric Carbonate Platform (ADCP) was a critical area in terms of Cretaceous faunal interchanges of the western Tethyan archipelago (Dalla Vecchia 2002; Pereda-Suberbiola 2009; Csiki-Sava et al 2015), dinosaur fossils (or those of other continental vertebrates) from this region are poorly known. In 2005 trackways of medium to large-sized sauropod dinosaurs were discovered in the central part of the ADCP, on Hvar Island at Žukova Cove, Dalmatia (Mezga et al 2006b), in an upper Turonian – lower Coniacian limestone series.

Results

Conclusion