Pegadas de Dinossáurios da Serra de Aire Natural Monument is a

natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, nat ...

in the

Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park (PNSAC) is a natural park in central west Portugal. It occupies an area of and is the most important repository of limestone formations in Portugal with a variety of geological formations associated with ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, known for its

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

tracks. It has the single longest known sauropod track in the world ( long). It is part of the Calcários Micríticos formation. It has around 20 different trails, all of which are part of a large limestone slab preserved for over 175 million years.

Origin

The formation dates back to the middle

Jurassic Period The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

(between the

Bajocian In the geologic timescale, the Bajocian is an age and stage in the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 170.3 Ma to around 168.3 Ma (million years ago). The Bajocian Age succeeds the Aalenian Age and precedes the Bathonian Age. Stratig ...

and

Bathonian In the geologic timescale the Bathonian is an age and stage of the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 168.3 Ma to around 166.1 Ma (million years ago). The Bathonian Age succeeds the Bajocian Age and precedes the Callovian Age. Strat ...

ages). At that time,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

was still connected to the

North American continent North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and, between

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

and

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, penetrated a shallow sea of warm and clear waters, conducive to the formation of

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

. The area in itself was a coastal plain, full of periodically flooded areas, consequence of

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

s, one to two meters thick. Geological interactions millions of years later gave rise to what is now the Serra de Aire mountain range, to which the slab sits slightly inclinated at around altitude.

History

The area was originally a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

, the ''Pedreira do Galinha''. On July 2, 1994, Ricardo Matos da Silva, João Pedro Falcão and João Carvalho, discovered the footprints that would turn the quarry into the current monument.

Gallery

File:Serra de Aire Dinosaur Footprints Monument, November, 2018.jpg File:Monumento Natural das Pegadas de Dinossáurios das Serras de Aires e Candeeiros - Portugal (182348849).jpg, The garden presents some

living fossils A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossi ...

of the Jurassic Period. File:Img 8737 Pegadas de Dinossáurios da Serra de Aire.jpg File:Pegada de dinossáurio na Serra de Aire.JPG File:Fossil dinosaur footstep trail in a Portuguese quarry1a.jpg File:Fossil dinosaur footstep in a Portuguese quarry1.jpg File:Fossil dinosaur footstep trail in a Portuguese quarry2a.jpg File:Fossil dinosaur footstep in a Portuguese quarry2.jpg

References

Protected areas of Portugal Paleontology in Portugal Fossil trackways {{Protected areas of Portugal