Dinosaur swim tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of La Rioja, Spain: An ichnological approach to non-common behaviours

Theropod swim traces in the Santisol tracksite (Lower Cretaceous), Cameros Basin, La Rioja, Spain

“…The author (RE) has visited the tracksite and compared the morphology of these traces with those of TTNP-Km99 and Santisol tracksites, concluding that they are also of swim morphotypes 1 and 2. Tracks interpreted as swim traces have been reported from the La Laguna tracksite in La Rioja, Spain, preserved as longitudinal scale scratch marks or drag marks (Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2023). They are morphologically different from those identified in the Santisol tracksite, the other tracksites in La Rioja with swim traces, and those identified in the TTNP in Bolivia.…”

“…Despite the abundance of dinosaur tracksites in Spain, only three sites are known to this date with dinosaur swim traces: the Icnitas-4 tracksite, near Enciso and between the villages of El Villar and Poyales (Casanovas et al, 1993;Pérez-Lorente, 2015); the La Virgen del Campo tracksite, in the outskirts of Enciso (Ezquerra et al, 2007;Ezquerra, 2010) and the Laguna tracksite near the town of Laguna de Cameros (Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2023). The three tracksites with swim tracks occur within Cameros Basin in the La Rioja Region.…”

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“…2) Punting tracks are impressed in subaquatic locomotion (bottom walking) in which the animal pushes off the bed of a water body with its limbs to maintain forward motion (Martinez et al, 1998;Bennett et al, 2014). This kind of behaviour has been recently identified in Early Cretaceous bipedal dinosaurs from the Cameros Basin (Spain) (Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2023) (Fig. 4C), but is present in several extinct and extant tetrapods as crocodilians, turtles, undetermined Permian vertebrates and hippopotami (Gaillard et al, 2003;Avanzini Bennett et al, 2014;Farlow et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2019;Mustoe, 2019).…”

“…Farlow et al, 2018;Riguetti et al, 2021;Romano & Whyte, 2015), but are typical of bipedal dinosaurs (both theropod and ornithopod trackmakers) characterized by subparallel long slender grooves and usually classified as Characichnos (Ezquerra et al, 2007;Milner et al, 2006;Whyte & Romano, 2001). Good examples were found in the La Laguna and La Virgen del Campo tracksites (Ezquerra et al, 2007;Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2023) in the Lower Cretaceous Urbión and Enciso groups (La Rioja, Spain) (Fig. 4A, B, D).…”

“…The tracks shown in the examples come from tracksites (named in the sequence figured in the text) located in the Maestrazgo basin (Teruel Province) and eastern Cameros basin (La Rioja and Soria provinces). These tracksites are: Aliaga-Miravete megatracksite (Camarillas Fm., Barremian, Navarrete et al, 2014); Río Alcalá tracksite (Camarillas Fm., Barremian, Cobos et al, 2016); Las Cuestas I tracksite (Huérteles Fm., Berriasian, Castanera et al, 2012;Pascual-Arribas et al, 2008); Las Villasecas (Huérteles Fm., Berriasian, Barco et al, 2005;Castanera et al, 2015); Valdehijuelos tracksite (Huérteles Fm., Berriasian, Pascual-Arribas and Hernández-Medrano, 2011;Castanera et al, 2015); Barranco de La Canal (Enciso Gr., Barremian-Aptian, Pérez-Lorente, 2003;Razzolini et al, 2016); La Torre 6B tracksite (Enciso Gr., Barremian-Aptian, Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2021); La Virgen del Campo 4 trackiste (Enciso Gr., Barremian-Aptian, Ezquerra et al, 2007); La Laguna tracksite (Urbion Gr., Barremian-Aptian, Navarro-Lorbés et al, 2023); Las Cerradicas tracksite (Villar del Arzobispo Fm/Cedrillas Fm, Tithonian, Castanera et al, 2011Castanera et al, , 2013aCastanera et al, , 2013bAurell et al, 2019;Campos-Soto et al, 2017); Fuentesalvo tracksite (Huérteles Fm., Berriasian, Castanera et al, 2013b); and Soto 2 tracksite (Oncala Gr., Berriasian, Pérez-Lorente, 2015).…”