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Jurassic Dinosaur Footprints from Southern Italy: Footprints as Indicators of Constraints in Paleogeographic Interpretation

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università "La Sapienza", P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy
² Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, C.so Ercole I d'Este 32, 44100, Ferrara, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università "La Sapienza", P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy; umberto.nicosia{at}uniroma1.it
⁴ Speleo Club Sperone, San Giovanni Rotondo, 71013, Foggia, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, C.so Ercole I d'Este 32, 44100, Ferrara, Italy

Three loose blocks, rich in dinosaur footprints, were found in a small pier at Mattinata (Gargano Promontory, Foggia, Italy), most probably quarried from the Upper Jurassic Sannicandro Formation. All of the footprints in the blocks are ascribed to medium-sized theropod trackmakers. Recent track discoveries from both the Early Cretaceous San Giovanni Rotondo Limestone and the Late Cretaceous Altamura Limestone, as well as this new discovery, reveal the consistency of terrestrial associations along the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean in the peri-Mediterranean area at the end of Jurassic through Cretaceous times. The presence of these dinosaur-track-rich levels within marine sediments of the Apulia Platform underlines the relevance of dinosaur footprints as a means of constraining paleogeographic reconstructions.