The first Danish dinosaur footprints!
Remains of dinosaurs from Denmark have hitherto consisted of two teeth, one complete dromaeosaur tooth, and a toothcrown with possible Titanosaurid affinities. Both teeth are of Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian/Ryazanian) age and found on the Baltic island Bornholm. In May 2004 two large sauropod footprints and a smaller, possibly thyreophorean footprint were found in the Middle Jurassic (Tithonian/Bathonian) Bagå Formation, which is exposed on the north-west coast of Bornholm in the Hasle Klinkefabrik clay pit. The sauropod tracks are pes imprints, 70 cm long and 45 cm wide, pentadactyl, with the impressions of digits I-III being the most prominent. The small track is 25 cm long and 19.5 cm wide, pentadactyl, with short clawed digits and symmetrical along the length axis. The Bagå Formation consists of alternating layers of clay and coal with thick cemented fluvial sandstone beds. During quarrying for clay, the hard sandstone beds were broken up and dumped on the beach in front of the clay pit. Palynological investigations of clay preserved between the footprint casts will determine the exact stratigraphic position of the blocks. These are the first dinosaur footprints found in Denmark, and the first sauropod footprints recorded from the Scandinavian area.