Vale de Meios tracksite (Jurassic of Portugal)

Where: Santarém, Portugal (39.5° N, 8.8° W: paleocoordinates 32.4° N, 2.7° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Serra de Aire Formation, Bathonian (168.3 - 166.1 Ma)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; massive, peloidal grainstone

• "high-energy deposits originated in barrier-islands paleoenvironments and lagoonal and peritidal deposits formed within the protected areas of the internal back-barrier"
• "They correspond to grainstones with pellets, ostracods tests and agglutinated foraminifera as main components. Although both fossils are found together, there is always a dominant one. When ostracodes are abundant, foraminifera are scarse and vice versa. This suggests small salinity variations within a similar environment, since ostracods are rather euryhaline (i.e, tolerant to such variations) if compared with foraminifera, which are more stenohaline (less tolerant).

•No lamination is observed. Sparitic and micritic matrix are found, therefore this microfacies can be classiffed both as pelbiosparite and pelbiomicrite, respectively. In fact, both kinds of matrix are observed in a single thin section."

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, trace

Collected in 1998, 2014-2015

Collection methods: surface (in situ),

Primary reference: V. F. dos Santos and L. A. Rodrigues. 2005. Scientific and cultural significance of some Portuguese dinosaur tracksites. International Symposium on Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates Palaeoichnology. Abstract Book 62 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 105176: authorized by Matthew Carrano, entered by Matthew Oreska on 17.02.2011, edited by Matthew Carrano

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• "dozens of theropod trackways made by different sized trackmakers....Santos et al. (2008) reported the existence of at least two sauropod trackways"
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Theropoda - Eubrontidae
Megalosauripus sp.1
Megalosauripus sp.1 Lessertisseur 1955 theropod
tracks in dozens of parallel trackways
 Saurischia -
Sauropoda indet.2
Sauropoda indet.2 sauropod
tracks
1Razzolini et al. 2016; 2Santos et al. 2009