Pterosaur Beach
| Pterosaur Beach | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: | |
| Type | Fossil track |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 44°31′48″N 1°19′33″E / 44.5301°N 1.3259°E |
| Region |  Occitanie |
| Country |  France |
| Type section | |
| Named by | Dughi & Sirugue |
  Pterosaur Beach (France) | |
Pterosaur Beach (French: Plage aux Ptérosaures) is a French
fossil footprints of a landing pterosaur have been discovered. The fossil footprints are approximately 140 million years old.[1]
Description
Pterosaur Beach was, at the end of the Jurassic era, a mudflat, flooded at high tide, on a marine lagoon in a gulf that opened on the Atlantic Ocean between Bordeaux and the island of Oléron. On it, animals foraged for food.[2] The site has hundreds of fossilized trackways.[3]
The site was discovered in 1993.
ichnotaxa have been identified.[5]
Pterosaur Beach is protected by a metallic building, in which paleontologists work in near-complete darkness, for only a raking light can expose the ground contours and sometimes reveal new tracks.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Pterosaur "Runway" Found; Shows Birdlike Landing Style, National Geographic News, August 19, 2009
- ^ "Des traces de ptérosaures mises au jour dans le Lot prouvent que ce reptile volant marchait à quatre pattes". France 3. 7 August 2013.
- ^ A prehistoric 'runway' used by flying reptiles, NBC News, August 18, 2009. Archived March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Crayssac, "la plage aux ptérosaures"". Libération. 7 February 2002.
- ^ "La plage aux ptérosaures". L’Humanité. 16 August 1999.
- ^ "Un dino fréquentait la "Plage aux ptérosaures"". La Dépèche.fr. 6 August 2015.
External links
- First record of a pterosaur landing trackway, by Jean-Michel Mazin, Jean-Paul Billon-Bruyat, and Kevin Padian, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2009
- Movie extract from "La plage aux ptérosaures", by Pierre Saunier
- Plage aux ptérosaures