A deposit containing 12 different dinosaur footprints has been discovered in Praia dos Arrifes in Albufeira, among other discoveries, making the site within the Geoparque Algarvensis project a global geosite, a researcher said.
In addition to a set of 12 footprints belonging to five dinosaurs of three different species that walked here some 120 million years ago, Praia dos Arrifes hides other treasures invisible to the eyes of tourists who swim in the small bay whose sand almost disappears at high tide.
Geoparque Algarvensis project scientific consultant Octavio Mateus said the rocks were discovered “several million years ago” with traces of crustaceans, shells, cowries and single-celled creatures, although the most impressive are the traces left by dinosaurs in the Lower Cretaceous.
Accessible only at low tide and to those willing to climb the rocks, the site’s 12 footprints, some arranged sequentially and three-dimensionally, indicate the presence of large sauropods, including Brontosaurus, the long-necked dinosaur popularized by the movies.
But this huge dinosaur, whose tracks reach half a meter in length, is joined on this trail by small sauropods, also herbivores, and three predatory animals, all in a crack between two layers of rock formed when these rocks were still in a horizontal position.
The footprints were carved into mud covered with limestone and sand 120 million years ago, and as the sediment underneath eroded, the footprints’ natural shape was preserved. The rocks were “rotated” into their current position by tectonic movement, explained the paleontologist, a professor at the New University of Lisbon.
“There are tectonic forces associated with salt deposits or plate movements, movements of the earth’s crust that cause it to bend and roll, and what was horizontal becomes vertical,” he illustrated, stressing that this is the “greatest discovery” that makes this beach area of Faro a “geo-site of global importance.”
At the beginning of the route, a rock reveals the seabed that existed several million years ago, showing traces of crustaceans similar to crabs and lobsters that dug galleries and dug up sand that was filled with more sand over time.
Further east, on the side of another cliff, also threatened by the sea, four tracks over 20 centimetres long were found, forming the footprint of an ornithopod dinosaur said to have been four metres long.
The first deposit has been registered since 2016 but has not been studied, work that is currently being carried out as part of the candidacy of the territory of Loulé, Albufeira and Silves for the role of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geopark.
But it is not easy to determine the paternity of the finds.
“THAT [atual coordenador científico do Geoparque Algarvensis] “Paulo Fernandes said that a student discovered it during one of his classes, but I don’t know the date. It must have been between 2014 and 2016. The sauropod footprints in the crevice were first mentioned in a 2016 conference report, but it doesn’t say who discovered them,” said Octavio Mateus.
However, as far as he knows, the ornithopod tracks are “completely new” and were discovered by you on June 12 of this year.
During a working visit to the Algarve to check on the progress of the candidacy, the President of the UNESCO World Geoparks Council, Guy Martini, said he believed in the potential of the Algarve candidacy, stressing that much still remains to be done.
According to Guy Martini, the future geopark, which is a project “for the next 20 years”, could help “create a new flow of movement, even tourists, from the coast, where they are currently concentrated, to the interior of the country”.
“I think it will create a more egalitarian economy in the area,” said the Frenchman, one of the main architects of the geopark concept, noting that the goal “must be a population that can protect its values and its nature.”
Artur Sa, Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair “Geoparks – Sustainable Regional Development and Healthy Lifestyles” at the University of Tras-os-Montes i Alto Douro (UTAD), noted the importance of the project for the interior of the region.
“This is a holistic approach to the territory, to everything that is identical and differentiated on the territory. […]Moreover, this opens up new opportunities for development for those who live here,” he emphasized.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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