A sauropod dinosaur megatracksite from the Late Jurassic of northern Switzerland
Title:
A sauropod dinosaur megatracksite from the Late Jurassic of northern Switzerland
Author:
Meyer, Christian A.
Appeared in:
Ichnos
Paging:
Volume 3 (1993) nr. 1 pages 29-38
Year:
1993
Contents:
The largest known sauropod trackway site from the Upper Jurassic in Europe has been found in the northern Jura Mountains of Switzerland. Since the initial discovery of the site in 1988, detailed ichno-facies mapping of the sites has been undertaken and completed. Six separate sites (from 5 to 45km apart) have been located to date; the largest one, displaying 345 single imprints, extends over a surface of 7000 m2. As all of the reported sites occur within the same bed, these vertebrate prints form a megatracksite covering an area of more than 360 km2. All localities are stratigraphically within the Reuchenette Formation. Two biostratigraphically diagnostic ammonites have been found within the sequence (Aulacostephanus; Gravesia), indicating an Upper Kimmeridgian age (sensu gallico). In the easternmost sites, imprints occur on mud-cracked tidal pond deposits, whereas the western tracksites are found in supratidal algal marsh deposits. The track-bearing horizon is immediately below a trans-gressive event at all the sites, suggesting that the ichnofaunas represent dinosaur activity during a relative sea-level low-stand. Footprint size and morphology, as well as trackway dimensions, suggest that the track producers belong to the largest sauropods yet recorded in the European Jurassic, closely resembling the Breviparopus tracks from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco.
Journal description