Isle of Skye footprints give a tranquil snapshot of dinosaur life
(Reuters) -It is the site of a dramatic moment in Scottish history. The Isle of Skye's rocky shoreline is where Charles Edward Stuart - known as Bonnie Prince Charlie - arrived by boat disguised as a maid to hide from the English in 1746 after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden.
But this celebrated claimant to the British throne was not the only one to make tracks at what is now called Prince Charles Point. Some 167 million years earlier during the Jurassic Period, large dinosaurs left footprints at the same place. Researchers now have identified 131 fossilized tracks produced by meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs as they milled about what was a subtropical freshwater lagoonal environment.
This extraordinary batch of trackways is important not only because it dates to a time underrepresented in the fossil record but because it shows a scene of routine life among the denizens of this bygone ecosystem, akin to animals of various species today congregating at watering holes on the African savannah.
"It's very much a tranquil snapshot of dinosaurs gathering, perhaps to drink or move between vegetated areas," said Tone Blakesley, a University of Edinburgh graduate student in paleontology and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. "The plant-eating dinosaurs were at that point not under any immediate threat from the predators."
"The trackways provide us with insight into how these dinosaurs behaved and interacted with their environment - something bones alone cannot provide," Blakesley added.
The researchers cannot be certain of the exact species that left the tracks, but their sizes and shapes offer good clues.
All meat-eating dinosaurs were part of a group called theropods. The ones that made the Isle of Skye tracks were part of a family called megalosaurs. One possibility is Megalosaurus, which lived about 100 million years before its distant relative Tyrannosaurus, measured about 20 feet (6 meters) long, walked on two legs and had a mouthful of large serrated teeth. It was one of the first dinosaurs discovered by scientists and, in 1824, became the first one to be given a name.
The plant-eaters that left footprints were part of the group called sauropods, known for their long necks, four pillar-like legs, small heads and teeth adapted for consuming vegetation. One possibility is Cetiosaurus, about 52 feet (16 meters) long.
The theropod footprints each measure about 18 inches (45 cm) long, with imprints of three toes, pads housing foot muscles and sharp claws. The sauropod footprints are different, about 20 inches (50 cm) long with a round shape widening a bit toward the front, and sometimes preserving marks from four, short and stubby triangular toes.
In all, about two dozen individual dinosaurs left the footprints. The researchers made digital models of each trackway after observing the site with a drone.
These dinosaurs lived at the heart of a vast river estuary surrounded by forested areas composed of conifers, tree ferns and ginkgoes, like those still in existence today.
The footprints of the theropods and sauropods were found in lagoonal settings while tracks of other dinosaurs - plant-eating stegosaurs and ornithopods - were found in what were drier landscapes, away from the lagoons.
Sharing this ecosystem were crocodiles, salamanders, lizards, turtles, small mammals and flying reptiles called pterosaurs. This time period predates the earliest known bird fossils.
"Footprints of this age are very rare, but when we find them, they provide direct evidence of behavior," University of Edinburgh paleontologist and study senior author Steve Brusatte said.
Brusatte highlighted the intersection of prehistory and Scottish history. Bonnie Prince Charlie - a romanticized hero of Scotland - survived his flight from the English, though his aspirations of kingship and the Jacobite rebellion he led were dashed.
"When the prince was running for his life, he was running on the footsteps of Jurassic dinosaurs. And he did make it. He hid out on Skye for a while, then was able to escape to France," Brusatte said.
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