Sauropods in Scotland

Sauropods in Scotland

Sauropod footprints were found recently in Scotland.  There were a around 50 of them.  The footprints were big enough and shaped right to only be from Sauropods.  The footprints were  found in rock that had once been mud.  The rocks that have the footprints are dated to the mid Jurassic Period.  This is significant because the fossil record is pretty slim on the mid Jurassic Period.  

Sauropods were the largest land animals that have ever lived on the planet.  They had legs like tree trunks, long necks and a whip like tail.  These are large tracks but there were Sauropods in the later Jurassic and in the Cretaceous Period that were much much larger.  Also, much of what we now know as Europe was a series of islands back in the Jurassic Period.  Because of the island habitat many dinosaurs failed to get as big as they would have on a continental environment.  The idea is that they evolved to be smaller if trapped on an island habitat because of a more limited food supply. 

You might notice that there is a Pterosaur in the picture.  It is one with a tail.  Earlier Pterosaurs had tails.  The birds you see are not a mistake.  The first birds are thought to have evolved in the mid Jurassic Period.

There is a Theropod or carnivorous dinosaur in the distance.  Theropod tracks were also found there in Scotland. . . near the Sauropod tracks.  So at least one Theropod was probably stalking or hunting the herd of herbivorous Sauropods.

The plants are all plants that could have been present in the Jurassic Period.  The fan shaped leaves are from a ginkgo tree.  The Sauropods are feeding on a cycad tree.  Cycads were conifers that looked and still do look like palm trees.  The flowering plant is present because recent finds show that flowering plants started in the Triassic Period or earlier.  The Triassic Period was the period before the Jurassic. 

Photo of Sauropod Footprint in Scotland

Notice the rock hammer and pencil for size comparison.