Sauropod tracks of the Cameros Basin (Spain): Identification, trackway patterns and changes over the Jurassic-Cretaceous

Sauropod trackways of the Iberian Peninsula: palaeoetological and palaeoenvironmental implications

“…The Cameros Basin, in the northern part of the Iberian Range (provinces of Burgos, La Rioja and Soria), has the greatest number of sauropod tracksites. The main tracksites are principally preserved in lacustrine environments from two concrete stratigraphic units: the Huérteles Formation (Oncala Group) and the Enciso Group, which outcrop in the Eastern Cameros sub-basin in the provinces of Soria and La Rioja, respectively (see Moratalla, 2009;Moratalla and Hernán, 2010, and references therein). The former is Berriasian in age and represents "an extensive, tectonically controlled complex record of alluvial plain systems distally connected with playalake systems, with an asymmetric arrangement of different sedimentary belts" (see Moratalla and Hernán, 2010 and references therein, but see also Quijada et al, 2010).…”

“…On the Iberian Peninsula a great number of sauropod tracksites, are known today, ranging in age from Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous (see Pérez-Lorente, 2003;Royo-Torres, 2009, for syntheses) and preserved in different palaeoenvironmental settings such as shallow marine, transitional and lacustrine environments (Santos, 2003;Vila et al, 2008;Moratalla, 2009;Moratalla and Hernán, 2010;Cobos, 2011). Nonetheless, gregarious behaviour of sauropods has only been described at two tracksites: the Pedra da Mua level 3 tracksite in Portugal (Lockley et al, 1994a) and Las Cerradicas tracksite in Spain (Castanera et al, 2011).…”

Dinosaur tracks from the Early Cretaceous of Parede tracksite (Cascais, Portugal): New implications on the sauropod palaeobiology of the Iberian Peninsula

“…Lockley et al, 1994;Lockley and Meyer, 2000) and the detailed description of the site can be found in the unpublished PhD Thesis of Santos (2003). In the same way, the Spanish sauropod ichnological record has well-known tracksites from the Late Jurassic (Lockley et al, 2007), the Jurassic-Cretaceous (Tithonian-Berriasian) transition (Sanz et al, 1997;Castanera et al, 2010aCastanera et al, , 2010bCastanera et al, , 2012Pascual-Arribas and Hernández-Medrano, 2011;Alcalá et al, 2012;, the Early Cretaceous (mainly pre-Albian: Moratalla et al, 2003;Pérez-Lorente, 2003;Moratalla, 2009;Castanera et al, 2013), and the Late Cretaceous (Vila et al, 2005(Vila et al, , 2008(Vila et al, , 2013. The Spanish tracksites from Monte Grande (Albian, near Bilbao) and Yecla (Albian, Murcia) are the only ones from the "Mid Cretaceous" Pérez-Lorente et al, 2006) in the entire Iberian Peninsula.…”

Unusual sauropod tracks in the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition. Cameros Basin (Burgos, Spain)

“…On the other hand, Romano et al (2007) affirmed that the temporal division of sauropod gauges is not clear. For example, Moratalla (2009) concluded that in the Cameros Basin narrow-gauge trackways are dominant for the Tithonian-Berriasian interval, wide-gauge trackways occur in the Berriasian and narrowgauge trackways are still present and dominate even during the Aptian. The absence of ornithopod footprints at Las Sereas 7 could conform to the Jurassic ichnofaunal record (sensu Hunt and Lucas, 2006).…”

“…Some authors have suggested that there are differences between Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaur ichnofaunas (e. g., Lockley et al, 2004;Hunt and Lucas, 2006;Moratalla, 2009). For example, Hunt and Lucas (2006) considered that ornithopod tracks are more abundant in Cretaceous outcrops.…”