The Dinosaur Quarry of Altamura, also known as or , is an area of scientific interest located in the countryside of the city of

Altamura Altamura (, ; nap, label= Barese, Ialtamùre) is a town and ''comune'' of Apulia, in southern Italy. It is located on one of the hills of the Murge plateau in the Metropolitan City of Bari, southwest of Bari, close to the border with Basilic ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where about 4000 footprints of

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

have been found (according to other sources, they are much more than 4000). It was originally an abandoned quarry located in an area named ''Pontrelli'' located on "Via Santeramo", where a kind of carbonate rock known as ''calcare di Altamura'' used to be extracted. It originally belonged to the De Lucia family and, after a few changes of ownership, in 2016 it was expropriated. Now it belongs to the Municipality of Altamura due to the remarkable scientific relevance of the discovery.

History of the discovery

The dinosaur footprints were accidentally discovered on May 10, 1999, by two marine geologists of the University of Ancona, Michele Claps and Massimo Sarti, while they were carrying out research on behalf of the company

Tamoil Tamoil is the trading name of the Oilinvest Group, a fuel energy provider within the European downstream oil and gas sector. The Oilinvest Group refines crude oil and markets refined oil products primarily under the Tamoil and the HEM brands in ...

.{{cite web, url=https://www.dinosauridialtamura.it/orme-di-altamura/ , title=Orme di Altamura - Dinosauri di Altamura , publisher=Dinosauridialtamura.it , date=2021-03-06 , accessdate=2021-03-16 Shortly thereafter, Italian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

ichnologist A trace fossil, also known as an ichnofossil (; from el, ἴχνος ''ikhnos'' "trace, track"), is a fossil record of biological activity but not the preserved remains of the plant or animal itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, ...

Umberto Nicosia searched the area, confirming the authenticity of the discovery and in 1999 he introduced, on the basis of the surveys inside the quarry and together with other collaborators, a new ichnospecies which was given the name of ''Apulosauripus federicianus'' referred at an ankylosauoid long 5–6 meters''.''

Characteristics

The climate of the period the footprints date back to (

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

, 90-65 million years ago) was very different from today. The climate was somehow similar to today's

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

and the water levels were probably shallow. According to the most recent theories, the fossilization of the footprints took place thanks to the periodic rise and fall of the sea level (the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

), which allowed the mud to be trampled by various species of dinosaurs. The footprints were then hardened by the phenomenon of diagenesis and, with the return of the water, they were covered with carbonate rocks (formed from fragments of shells and microorganisms). The latter then covered the holes of the footprints, thus fossilizing them. The discovery of the footprints shed light on some essential paleographic questions about the climate and conditions of the territory at that time. Today's

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

region was "a promontory of the African continent" and its "palaeographic domain" is known as the "Apulian carbonate platform"; because of the presence of footprints of dinosaurs of various species in this region, the area could never be, as previously assumed, almost totally covered with water.

The footprints

The footprints are from various kinds of dinosaurs, most of which were herbivores, although there are also a few footprints of carnivorous dinosaurs. The footprints are approximately 4000 in number and they are from around two hundred dinosaurs belonging to at least five different species. The size of the footprints varies from 15 to 40–45 cm. Italian

and

Umberto Nicosia described it as the "most important Italian or even European site, both for

paleobiogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

and ichnology".

References

External links

Comune di Altamura - Cava dei dinosauri

Altamura Paleontological sites of Italy