La Rioja is the least populated community (323,465 inhabitants, according to the INE) and the second smallest, but it has a vast paleontological heritage, which extends across 170 sites, where there are nearly 11,000 dinosaur footprints, in addition to different sediments. bone
The latest discovery has to do with the fossil remains belonging to species of dinosaurs that knew how to swim or, at least, were capable of swimming large volumes of water. A discovery that bears the signature of the researcher from the University of La Rioja, Pablo Navarro, who has identified 27 footprints (ichnites) of this class of bipedal, non-avian dinosaurs (grandparents of birds) and tridactyls (three-fingered), which lived in La Rioja more than 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous.
“They are ichnites with special morphologies, since they belong to dinosaurs that were swimming and not walking, which is the most common behavior in the footprints that can be seen in La Rioja or in other parts of the planet,” Navarro points out about this discovery in Laguna. of Cameros. Footprints with a variable length (from 8.5 to 29.2 centimeters) and whose dimensions also change depending on the posture and movements of the animal when touching the aquatic bottom. At the site, “larger and smaller marks have been found, which could correspond to different species or to adult and young dinosaurs of the same species,” she details.
The researcher attributes the footprints to spinosaurids (bipedal predators) that were trying to overcome the flow of water. According to Navarro, dinosaurs “could use different techniques to swim.” The study of the ichnites suggests that “the animal’s body was partially or totally floating.” For this reason, the footprints are elongated in the first case; while, in the second, they show more clearly the tips of the fingers that they used to balance their march and continue moving forward.
Navarro clarifies that in La Rioja “there was already evidence” of this aquatic ability of dinosaurs, specifically, in the Virgen del Campo site, in Enciso, a town located 24 kilometers from Laguna de Cameros, but belonging to another river valley of the Ebro. and separated by a mountain range. In the world there are only a dozen sites of swimming dinosaur ichnites, according to the paleontologist from the University of La Rioja.
The Laguna de Cameros site was discovered in 2020 by Jorge Tierno, a resident of this small town with a census population of just over 100 inhabitants. Scientists from the universities of La Rioja, Complutense of Madrid, the Basque Country, the National University of Río Negro (Argentina) and Cantabria have also collaborated in this research, as well as the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain.
“We have found 27 footprints and there is no more evidence. “They are on a cliff, in an area that is not easily accessible,” explains Navarro, who has also identified in another Rioja town, Igea, footprints of theropods capable of running at 45 km/h, one of the highest speeds recorded in the world for this class. of dinosaurs.
Precisely, in this area of La Rioja, bone remains of the most complete spinosaurid dinosaur in Europe have been found. An animal with enormous dimensions: 8 meters long, 2.5 meters high and a weight that was close to a ton and a half. A specimen that lived in the mountains of what is now La Rioja also 120 million years ago, in the middle of the Lower Cretaceous.
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