DINOTRACKS OF BOLIVIA It would appear from this photograph that…

DINOTRACKS OF BOLIVIA It would appear from this photograph that…

DINOTRACKS OF BOLIVIA

It would appear from this photograph that 68 million years ago, dinosaurs found themselves up against the wall.

In 1994, in the course of excavation of a limestone quarry at Cal Orko near Sucre, Bolivia, this rock wall was exposed, and on it… more dinosaur tracks than found anywhere else in the world. Possibly more dinosaur tracks than found everywhere in the world all together!

The main rock surface is a layering plane of limestone that is 1.2km in length, 80m high, and dipping a steep 70degrees into the quarry. At last count, more than 5,000 tracks from 462 individual dinosaurs were exposed representing six different species. Among them, one trail was made by a baby Tyrannosaurus Rex: this particular individual was given the nickname of Johnny Walker. Johnny kept on walking leaving his tracks over a 367m long path.

The original environment visited by Johnny and his friends was apparently a shallow lake. They left their footprints in soft, moist, limey mud which then dried. The prints were then filled with new muddy sediments during the next wet cycle, which then dried again, and then were filled with wet mud again, which dried again… and again… and again forming a thick series of limestones and keeping the tracks in a state of excellent preservation. In later time, after the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, the rocks were rotated to their present steep position by the push and shove movement of tectonic plates.

Ankylosaurs, titanosaurs, igaunodaunts, T-Rex! So many animals, so many footprints that paleontologists refer to the site as a “dinosaur dance floor.”

Well, at least it appears they were having a good time before their extinction ~65 million years ago…

Annie R

This photo is by Ramon Kristian Arellano (via flickr)

Collection of dinotracks from this locality can be viewed at: http://www.kuriositas.com/2013/09/the-incredible-dinosaur-wall-of-bolivia.html

http://www.altering-perspectives.com/2013/06/cliff-wall-in-bolivia-covered-in.html

And information from:

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/jul/15/dinosaur-tracking-bolivia-cal-orko

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dinosaur-dance-floor