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Upper Triassic) of the Carnic Prealps (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, NE Italy)

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Upper Triassic) of the Carnic Prealps (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, NE Italy) Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana, 53 (1), 2014, 1-18. Modena New dinosaur tracks from the Dolomia Principale (Upper Triassic) of the Carnic Prealps (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, NE Italy) Marco MARZOLA & Fabio Marco DALLA VECCHIA M. Marzola, CICEGe/GeoBioTec, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, P-2829-516 Caparica, Portugal; Museu da Lourinhã, Rua João Luís de Moura 95, 2530-158 Lourinhã, Portugal; [email protected] F.M. Dalla Vecchia, Institut Català de Paleontologia “M. Crusafont” (ICP), Grup de Recerca del Mesozoic, C/Escola Industrial 23, E-08201 Sabadell, Spain; [email protected] KEY WORDS - Dinosaur tracks, tridactyl footprints, Anchisauripus, Dolomia Principale, Parco Dolomiti Friulane, Upper Triassic, Italy. ABSTRACT - Ten new track-bearing boulders discovered in the Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti Friulane area (Carnic Prealps, NE Italy) during the last 15 years demonstrate that bipedal dinosaurs with a functionally tridactyl, digitigrade pes, within the size-class of the ichnogenus Anchisauripus Lull, 1904, were the most common trackmakers in the carbonate tidal flats of the Dolomia Principale during the latest Triassic. If the footprint morphology actually reflects the functional tridactyl condition of the trackmakers’ feet, theropods are the most suitable trackmakers. The ichnoassociation of the Parco delle Dolomiti Friulane area differs from coeval ichnoassociations in the dominance of mid-sized tridactyl footprints and the rarity of small tridactyl (Grallator Hitchcock, 1858; length <15 cm) and chirotheriid tracks. Tracks potentially produced by basal sauropodomorphs, which were the most common European dinosaurs in the late Norian-Rhaetian interval, are underrepresented. RIASSUNTO - [Nuove orme di dinosauro nella Dolomia Principale (Triassico Superiore) delle Prealpi Carniche (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italia nord-orientale)] - In questo lavoro vengono descritti dieci nuovi massi con orme fossili rinvenuti negli ultimi 15 anni nel Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti Friulane (Prealpi Carniche, Italia nord-orientale). Questi nuovi reperti, inquadrati nel contesto icnologico del Triassico Superiore del Parco delle Dolomiti Friulane, confermano che i dinosauri bipedi con un pes funzionalmente tridattile e digitigrado erano i più comuni autori di orme sulle piane tidali carbonatiche della Dolomia Principale durante il Triassico Superiore. Questi dinosauri producevano orme lunghe tra i 15 e i 25 centimetri, tipiche della classe dimensionale dell’icnogenere Anchisauripus Lull, 1904. Se la morfologia delle orme riflette realmente la tridattilia funzionale del pes del trackmaker, i dinosauri teropodi sono i più probabili candidati. I potenziali autori alternativi bipedi o facoltativamente tali (arcosauri pseudosuchi, dinosauromorfi non dinosauri, ornitischi basali, saurischi basali, sauropodomorfi basali) erano troppo piccoli rispetto alle orme in esame. Inoltre, quando presenti nel record fossile attuale, le loro zampe posteriori presentano un dito I sensibilmente lungo, che toccava il suolo e poteva produrre orme tetradattili. L’icnoassociazione del Parco delle Dolomiti Friulane si distingue dalle altre icnoassociazioni coeve per l’abbondanza di orme tridattili di medie dimensioni (lunghe 15-25 cm) e la rarità di quelle più piccole e delle orme chirotheriidi. Anche le impronte riferibili ai sauropodomorfi basali, i dinosauri più comuni in Europa durante il Norico superiore-Retico, sono poco rappresentate. INTRODUCTION footprint record also in the nearby Dolomites of the Veneto Region and Bolzano/Bozen Autonomous Province The Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti Friulane (Natural Park (Mietto, 1988; Leonardi, 2000; Belvedere et al., 2008). of the Friulian Dolomites; PNDF) extends in the western part This paper deals with the tracks discovered in the of the Carnic Prealps (Pordenone Province, Friuli-Venezia PNDF during the last 15 years, which have not yet been Giulia Autonomous Region, northeastern Italy). The Late reported in the literature. Triassic Dolomia Principale is a formation that crops out The aim of this study is: 1) the description of extensively in the Park area and has yielded a relatively unpublished new material and comparison with similar abundant record of tetrapod footprints (Dalla Vecchia & ichnotaxa, 2) the identification of possible trackmakers Mietto, 1998; Dalla Vecchia, 2002, 2006). These are usually and 3) the understanding of the overall ichnoassemblage found on the surface of large boulders fallen down from and its contextualization within the latest Triassic tetrapod steep slopes and cliffs. Most of the footprints were initially tracks record. referred to theropod dinosaurs, a few have been attributed to “prosauropods” (= basal Sauropodomorpha of recent phylogenetic analyses; e.g., Upchurch et al., 2007; Ezcurra, PROVENANCE AND GEOLOGICAL REMARKS 2010) and to crurotarsal archosaurs (Dalla Vecchia & Mietto, 1998). Later, Dalla Vecchia (2002, 2006, 2008) emphasized The new track-bearing boulders are located in the that the tridactyl footprints previously referred to theropod Settimana Creek Valley and in the southern slope of Mt dinosaurs could have been produced by herrerasaurids, Caserine Basse north of the Grave di Gere locality, both that according to some phylogenetic hypotheses (e.g., of Claut municipality, and in the Pezzeda Creek Valley of Langer, 2004), are basal, non-theropod saurischians with a Cimolais municipality (Fig. 1). Geographic coordinates functionally tridactyl pes. are reported for each boulder. The Dolomia Principale (Hauptdolomit of German- Most of the lithostratigraphic units cropping out in speaking authors) has yielded a relatively rich tetrapod the PNDF originated from carbonate sediments deposited ISSN 0375-7633 doi:10.4435/BSPI.2014.01 2 Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana, 53 (1), 2014 Fig. 1 - Map with position of the study area and the track-bearing boulders. Abbreviations: AVG1-3 = unnamed creek in the southern slope of Mt Caserine Basse north of the Grave di Gere locality, boulders 1-3; VPE1 = Pezzeda Creek Valley boulder; VSE1-6 = Settimana Creek Valley, boulders 1-6. in marine environments during the Late Triassic and the late Norian-Rhaetian Calcare del Dachstein in the the Jurassic (Carulli et al., 2000; Carulli, 2006). The northern part of the Carnic Prealps, while it fades into the Dolomia Principale, Calcare del Dachstein, and Calcari supposedly Early Jurassic Calcari Grigi in the southern Grigi are the only units deposited in shallow carbonate part; thus, in this area the Dolomia Principale should be platform settings, while others represent deeper settings Norian to Rhaetian in age (Pisa in Braga et al., 1971; (slope, basin, and submarine plateau). The outcrops of the Carulli et al., 2000). Calcare del Dachstein are very limited in the PNDF area Bosellini & Hardie (1988) informally divided the (environs of Cima Ladice) and the Calcari Grigi crops out Dolomia Principale of the western Carnic Prealps into only in the southern part of the Carnic Prealps and in the three units: a lower unit (400-500 m-thick) characterised Mt Raut (Carulli et al., 2000). The Dolomia Principale by shallowing-upward, metric peritidal cycles capped crops out at all locations where the new footprint-bearing by stromatolite horizons; a middle unit characterised by boulders have been found; the observed lithology and diagenetic cycles (about 300 m-thick); and an upper unit all sedimentological features of the boulders support the (150-200 m-thick) similar to the lower unit. Particularly attribution to this lithostratigraphic unit, as it is the case important for the preservation of the footprints in the with the other footprints found in the PNDF (Dalla Vecchia Dolomia Principale are the intertidal stromatolite intervals & Mietto, 1998; Dalla Vecchia, 2006). (Mietto, 1988; Dalla Vecchia & Mietto, 1998). In northern Italy, the Dolomia Principale crops out Because the new boulders are mostly found in the from Lombardy to the eastern Friuli and is dated as late debris along the creeks, their exact original stratigraphical Carnian to Norian (Berra et al., 2007; Neri et al., 2007). position in the Dolomia Principale is unknown, as it is the It is mainly composed of light gray to whitish dolostone case with the other boulders described by Dalla Vecchia and its thickness varies from 250 m in the Adige Valley & Mietto (1998). up to 2000 m in Cadore and in the Carnic Prealps (Bosellini, 1967; Bosellini & Hardie, 1988; Carulli et al., 2000). The depositional environment was a wide, muddy, MATERIALS AND METHODS carbonate tidal flat with characteristic cyclical alternance of supratidal-intertidal-subtidal facies (Bosellini, 1967; The studied material includes ten track-bearing Bosellini & Hardie, 1988). boulders containing a total of at least 56 footprints with a The lower boundary of the Dolomia Principale is not degree of preservation from very poor to moderately good. exposed in the PNDF area; its upper boundary is with We use the acronyms AVG1-3 to identify the boulders 1-3 M. Marzola & F.M. Dalla Vecchia - Triassic dinosaur tracks from the Carnian Prealps 3 from an unnamed creek along the southern slope of Mt by a medium size (15-25 cm long), the trace of digit III Caserine Basse just north of the Grave di Gere locality, that “projects relatively further anteriorly than in Eubrontes VPE1 for the boulder from Pezzeda Creek Valley, and but not as far as in Grallator (digit III projection ratio >1.3 VSE1-6 for the boulders 1-6
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