Dinosaur tracks from Barkhausen

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Overall view of the covered layer area

The Barkhausen dinosaur tracks are a natural monument in a disused quarry near Barkhausen an der Hunte , a district of the Lower Saxon community of Bad Essen in the district of Osnabrück .

On the strata of the rock, which is around 150 million years old ( Middle Kimmeridgian ), fossil tracks (sequences of footsteps) from sauropod and theropod dinosaurs from the late Upper Jurassic ( Malm ) are exposed .

Discovery story

Sauropod and theropod tracks on the rock face

The geologist Walter Klüpfel, who explored the iron ore deposits in the region, found the first traces ( Ichnofossils ) in 1921 . They were then scientifically examined by Max Ballerstedt , a senior teacher at the Adolfinum Bückeburg high school and founder of an important fossil collection, who had already dealt intensively with traces of the Obernkirchen sandstone from the early Cretaceous . However, only a few sauropod tracks were uncovered, and only later were other tracks discovered, including the theropod tracks. In 1982 the quarry was placed under nature protection. Further step seals were uncovered in 1983, it is also assumed that the tracks continue downwards and therefore not all of the step seals have yet been discovered. The publicly accessible natural monument has been protected from the weather by a glass roof since 2000 , and two life-size replicas of the possible causes of traces have been set up.

description

The natural monument is a ten-meter-long and six-meter-high rock wall made of sandstone that is almost vertically displaced by tectonic forces. There the tracks of nine smaller sauropods and two large theropods can be seen.

The tracks were probably made on the coast , as indicated by ripple marks that were created by the movement of waves, as well as dry cracks caused by drying out - perhaps at low tide . In addition, raindrops impacts, the burrows of microorganisms and alluvial plants on land could be detected. It is believed that the footprints left in the soft silt after solidification by the sun were covered with sediments that came with the water. They took their current almost vertical position when the Wiehengebirge unfolded at the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago.

Sauropod tracks ( Elephantopoides barkhausenensis )

A sauropod trail. A forefoot print can be seen on the lower left.

The sauropod tracks run from top to bottom, all animals walked roughly in the same direction. The rounded hindfoot impressions have a diameter of 32 to 38 centimeters, while the crescent-shaped impressions of the forefoot, which are usually located directly in front of the hindfoot prints (i.e. on the rock face below), are quite small. The stride length is around one and a half meters.

In 1974, a new Ichnotaxon (Spurentaxon) was described based on the local sauropod traces : Elephantopoides barkhausenensis K AEVER & DE L APPARENT . The name means something like "elephant foot from Barkhausen", it is the first European sauropod tracks that were named. However, the traces are not optimally preserved; details such as B. Claw prints. So it is not possible to say whether it is young or adult . Other authors later noted that it was likely, but not entirely certain, that the traces were of sauropod origin, and therefore described the systematic assignment as doubtful ( noun dubium ). Later studies by Lockley showed that they were indeed small, "narrow-headed" sauropods. The latest investigations by Diedrich show the validity of the traces, which are decisive for the renaming of many traces in Europe.

Theropod tracks ( Megalosauripus teutonicus )

In addition to the sauropod tracks, there are two tracks of large theropods that ran in different directions. One series of tracks points upwards on the rock face, the other to the right. Their tridactyl (three-toed) step seals are about 63 centimeters, about twice as large as the sauropod tracks. The tracks bear the scientific name Megalosauropus teutonicus and have traditionally been attributed to Megalosaurus . It is unclear that the tracks actually belonged to this large predatory dinosaur. Megalosaurus was used for a long time as a collective name for large theropod remains of the Middle Jurassic period, which could not be properly classified - which hides the fact that Megalosaurus itself is hardly known. Theropods such as Allosaurus can also be used as track producers . The latest theropod tooth finds from the neighboring and simultaneous Nettelstedt site even prove both large groups of predatory dinosaurs in northern Germany.

meaning

The tracks are important as indicators for general developments in the evolution of the dinosaurs. Before the Middle Jurassic, for example, no traces of sauropods are known, only in the Upper Jurassic ("Age of the Sauropods") such traces become more frequent and show an increasing number with finds in North and South America as well as in Europe (besides Barkhausen among others in Portugal and Switzerland) geographical distribution of this group of dinosaurs.

In the meantime, there are also known tracks of sauropods from the Lower Jurassic of Italy.

literature

  • Cajus Diedrich: Upper Jurassic tidal flat megatracksites of Germany - coastal dinosaur migration highways between European islands, and a review of the dinosaur footprints. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. Vol. 91, No. 2, 2011, pp. 129-155, doi : 10.1007 / s12549-010-0044-y .

See also

Web links

Commons : Dinosaur tracks from Barkhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Barkhausen dinosaur tracks . Leaflet, Nature Park TERRA.vita, Osnabrück 2005. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.
  2. a b c d e Ernst Probst: Germany at the time of the Upper Jurassic . In: Germany in primeval times . Orbis Verlag für Publizistik (special edition), Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-01057-8 , pp. 175-178.
  3. ^ A b c d Martin Lockley, Meyer, Christian: The Age of Brontosaurus . In: Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe . Columbia University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-231-10710-2 , pp. 158-161; 151
  4. Karen Moreno: Occurrence of sauropod dinosaur tracks in the Upper Jurassic of Chile (redescription of Iguanodonichnus frenki ) . In: Journal of South American Earth Sciences . 20, 2005, pp. 253-257. PDF (PDF; 394 kB) Accessed December 21, 2010.
  5. Martin Lockley: In the footsteps of the dinosaurs. Dinosaur tracks - an expedition into the past. P. 197f. Birkhäuser Verlag. Basel, Boston, Berlin, 1993.
  6. ^ Martin Lockley, Meyer, Christian: Early Jurassic . In: Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe . Columbia University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-231-10710-2 , pp. 126-129.

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 42 ″  N , 8 ° 24 ′ 50 ″  E