Giant pterosaur tracks from the Late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of northeastern Mexico
Final Report Abstract
Interpreting ichnofossils prior to preparation might reveal to be in fact a pitfall to the investigator. However, in the field with a limited amount of time any thorough guess on the given data is better than nothing. In the case of this project the excavation revealed the presence of a huge dromaeosaurid with a length of more than 10 meters that roamed the Campanian deltaic plains of what is now northern Coahuila. A lost digital phalanx of a dromaeosaurid pes from the vicinity of the ichnofossil appears to prove evidence for this. Furthermore, we discovered a dinosaur graveyard well worth to be excavated, and which might rank with the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. We succeeded to convince the peoples of the nearby hamlet Porvenir de Jalpa to do an effort, which is effectively visible since spring of the year 2009. Several surprises occurred during the project. One surprise concerns the activities of the people from Porvenir de Jalpa. Not only they converted the site into a true protected area, which is still open to the public, but furthermore would like to support further research in the dinosaur valley next to the giant dromaeosaur trackway, which is planned to be excavated further. The local guides want to be educated and new sign plates are indeed appreciated. Therefore, the project triggered a new development in Las Aguilas for the future, but it needed two and a half years after project work to achieve this.
Publications
- 2005: Dinosaur tracks from the Late Cretaceous Sabinas Basin (Mexico). Kaupia, Darmstädter Beiträge zur Naturkunde 14: 41-45, Darmstadt
Meyer, C., Frey, E. Thüring, B. & Stinnesbeck, W.
- 2008: The pitfalls of interpreting incomplete dinosaur trackways – an example of a dromaeosaurid trackway from the late Cretaceous of the Sierra Madre Oriental (Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Late Campanian; Parras Basin, Coahuila, NE Mexico). 6th Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, 30th June – 5th July 2008, Spišská Nová Ves, Slovak Republic, Volume of Abstracts: 69-73
Meyer, C.A., Frey, E. & Thüring, B.
