Wednesday 17 June 2015

The Early Cretaceous monster theropod

These might be the largest theropod tracks in the world. The footprints of this Early Cretaceous theropod are about 130 cm long. Last year the sea washed away part of this rocky beach, unfortunately. I haven't checked for the damage, yet. My photographs might be the only remaining document of the trackway which consisted of 5 footprints in a sequence. It is a resort area. Teeming with tourists.
A charcarodontosaurid is certainly one of the suspects as a trackmaker. The peculiar feature of this trackmaker's foot is a relatively very long middle toe (#3) The toe tips made the deepest imprints.The Early Cretaceous giant theropod (the red outline) compared to the Tyrannosauripus track (on the left). Since the Istrian EK giant tracks are not well preserved I have combined two footprints to make the footprint outline (the bottom image)