Dinosaur tracks from the Langenberg Quarry (Late Jurassic, Germany) reconstructed with historical photogrammetry: Evidence for large theropods soon after insular dwarfism

Abstract

Here we describe dinosaur tracks from the Langenberg Quarry near Goslar (Lower Saxony) that represent the first footprints from the Late Jurassic of Germany discovered outside the Wiehen Mountains. The footprints are preserved in Kimmeridgian marginal marine carbonates. They vary in length from 36 to 47 cm and were made by theropod dinosaurs. The original tracksite with 20 footprints was destroyed by quarrying soon after its discovery in 2003. Only the five best defined footprints were excavated. Based on scanned-in analog photographs which were taken during the excavation, a three-dimensional (3-D) model of the original tracksite was generated by applying historical photogrammetry. The resulting model is accurate enough to allow a detailed description of the original tracksite. Different preservation types result from changing substrate properties and include both well-defined footprints and deeply impressed footprints with elongated heel and variably defined digit impressions. The tracksite was discovered stratigraphically close to the bone accumulation of the dwarfed sauropod dinosaur Europasaurus holgeri and probably records a sea level fall along with a faunal interchange, which would likely have eliminated the resident dwarf island fauna. The two largest and best preserved footprints differ from most other Late Jurassic theropod footprints in their great width. Two different trackmaker species might have been present at the site. Several hypotheses presented in a recent paper on Late Jurassic dinosaur tracks from the Wiehen Mountains by Diedrich (2011b) are commented upon herein.

The tracks of giant theropods (Jurabrontes curtedulensisichnogen. & ichnosp. nov.) from the Late Jurassic of NW Switzerland: palaeoecological & palaeogeographical implications

“…Iguanodontipus isp. left by Camptosaurus, but these identifications were rejected by Lallensack et al (2015) who explicitly pointed to numerous problems in Diedrich's (2011) descriptions and figures. However, we believe that this track is rather of theropod than ornithopod affinity and shares some similarities with Jurabrontes, notably three blunt digits with some evidence for phalangeal pads (pers.…”

“…Nonetheless, a comparison with Jurabrontes is justified because Lallensack et al (2015) stated that: 'The two largest and best preserved footprints from the Langenberg are very similar in terms of footprint dimensions to roughly contemporaneous tracks from Barkhausen, but different from many other Late Jurassic tracks assembled under the name Megalosauripus because of their greater width' . Based on personal observations, at least the largest track cast DFMMh/FV 644 (stored in the (II & III), some phalangeal pads discernible on dII, dIII and dIV, and prominent claw marks on dII and dIII.…”

Aplicación de fotogrametría digital para el registro de las huellas de dinosaurio de la Formación Cerro del Pueblo (Campaniano tardío), Coahuila, México

“…En las últimas dos décadas, varios grupos de investigadores alrededor del mundo han aprovechado las nuevas tecnologías de modelado digital en 3D aplicándolas al estudio de la icnología. Se inició con el empleo de escáner láser digital para modelar lajas con icnitas en laboratorio (Arakawa et al, 2002), posteriormente se empleó una combinación de escáner LiDAR y fotogrametría aplicados directamente en los yacimientos (Breithaupt et al, 2004;Matthews et al, 2006;Bates et al, 2008aBates et al, , 2008bPetti et al, 2008;Adams et al, 2010) y durante los últimos cinco años muchos estudios se han llevado a cabo mediante modelos de fotogrametría digital, cuya principal ventaja ante el empleo de un escáner es su bajo costo y facilidad de manejo en campo (Castanera et al, 2013a(Castanera et al, , 2013bFalkingham, 2012;Mallison y Wings, 2014;Razzolini et al, 2014;Lallensack et al, 2015;Matthews et al, 2016;Romilio et al, 2017). Con este proyecto se buscó generar el registro virtual de seis yacimientos con huellas de dinosaurio de manera que se corroborara la efectividad del modelado por fotogrametría digital, una técnica de bajo costo e impacto nulo sobre los icnofósiles, que permitiera generar un catálogo a modo de resguardo permanente del patrimonio paleontológico de México y al mismo tiempo funcionara como una herramienta eficiente para facilitar su estudio.…”

A walk in the maze: Variation in Late Jurassic tridactyl dinosaur tracks - A case study from the Late Jurassic of the Swiss Jura Mountains (NW Switzerland)

“…In Europe, apart from the Swiss and French (Mazin, Hantzpergue & Pouech, 2016) Jura Mountains, the main Late Jurassic deposits that have yielded minute to medium-sized tridactyl dinosaur tracks are located in the Lusitanian Basin in Portugal (Antunes & Mateus, 2003;Santos, 2008), the Asturian Basin in Spain (Lockley et al, 2008;Piñuela, 2015), the Aquitanian Basin in France (Lange-Badré et al, 1996;Mazin et al, 1997;Moreau et al, 2017), the Lower Saxony Basin in NW Germany (Kaever & Lapparent, 1974;Diedrich, 2011;Lallensack et al, 2015), and several units in the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland . The units that date to around the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (Tithonian-Berriasian) in the Iberian Range in Spain (Santisteban et al, 2003;Castanera et al, 2013a;Alcalá et al, 2014;Campos-Soto et al, 2017) should also be mentioned.…”