Theropod and sauropod footprints in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Apenninic Carbonate Platform (Esperia, Lazio, Central Italy): a further constraint on the palaeogeography of the Central-Mediterranean area

Abstract

Theropod and sauropod footprints in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Apenninic Carbonate Platform (Esperia, Lazio, Central Italy): a further constraint on the palaeogeography of the Central-Mediterranean area About eighty dinosaur tracks were recently discovered near the village of Esperia, in the Western Aurunci Mountains (Latium, Central Italy). The footprints are distributed on a bedding plane belonging to a shallow water limestone succession. Tridactyl footprints attributed to small-sized theropods and round to elliptical footprints tentatively ascribed to medium-sized sauropods have been recognized on the trampled layer. This ichnoassemblage reveals the contemporaneous occurrence of carnivores/piscivores (theropods) together with plant-eaters (sauropods) dinosaurs. The Esperia outcrop is the second ichnosite discovered in southern Latium and dates the dinosaur occurrences in the Apenninic carbonate Platform to the Aptian, adding a strong constraint on the Early Cretaceous palaeogeography of the Central-Mediterranean area.