Hundreds of footprints left behind by massive herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs have been discovered on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
An artist’s impression of giant sauropods on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Image credit: Jon Hoad.
Dr Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist with the University of Edinburgh, and his colleagues identified the fossilized dinosaur footprints, large and small, in layers of rock, which would have been at the bottom of a shallow, salt water lagoon when the prints were made.
“We report the discovery of the most extensive dinosaur fossil site yet known in Scotland: a coastal outcrop of the Duntulm Formation at Cairidh Ghlumaig, Skye that preserves numerous trackways of sauropod dinosaurs in multiple layers deposited in a lagoonal system,” they wrote in a paper published this week in the Scottish Journal of Geology.
The sauropod footprints were left in sediment nearly 170 million years ago (Jurassic period). They are the first sauropod tracks to be found in Scotland.
By analyzing their structure, Dr Brusatte and co-authors found that the dinosaurs were early, distant relatives of more well-known species, such as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus.
“The new tracksite from Skye is one of the most remarkable dinosaur discoveries ever made in Scotland,” Dr Brusatte said. “There are so many tracks crossing each other that it looks like a dinosaur disco preserved in stone.”
Dinosaur footprints left behind on a muddy lakeside 170 million years ago appear to have been made by giant sauropods. The largest of the footprints measures 27.5 inches (70 cm) across. Image credit: Steve Brusatte.
According to the team, the Isle of Skye dinosaurs likely grew to at least 50 feet (15 m) in length and weighed more than 10 tons.
Together with similar tracks found in other parts of the world, the Skye footprints reveal that sauropod dinosaurs spent lots of time in coastal areas and shallow water. It was previously thought that these massive dinosaurs were purely land-dwellers.
“The new Skye tracks document multiple generations of sauropods living within the lagoonal environments of Jurassic Scotland, and along with other tracks found over the past two decades, suggest that sauropods may have frequented such environments, contrary to their image as land-bound behemoths,” the scientists said.
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Stephen L. Brusatte et al. Sauropod dinosaur trackways in a Middle Jurassic lagoon on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, published online December 1, 2015; doi: 10.1144/sjg2015-005
