TRACKING DINOSAURS IN SOUTH AMERICA

April 20, 2017 SouthAmerica

Where are dinosaur tracks in South America? These lumbering beasts were all over the place well before the Andes crumpled up to form the second highest mountain chain in the world. The track all date from the time when South America and Africa were one tectonic plate in a large continent called Pangaea. In fact, fossil records on both South America and Africa where part of how geologists demonstrated that the two land masses were once connected. A systematic inventory and comparison of dinosaur tracks from all South American sites apparently has never been compiled. Below are a few spots with dinosaur tracks that we have stumbled across.

ARGENTINA

Los Barreales track, Neuquen

In southern Argentina, within the Neuquen Province, the famous dinosaur beds near Villa El Chocón, in the Candeleros Formation, had the largest meat-eating dinosaur called Giganotosaurus carolinii. To the north, along the north shore of Los Barreales reservoir, are extensive dinosaur excavations, operated as site called Centro Paleontológico Lago Los Barreales. Within these bright red formations is preserved a large footprint that measured 1.2 meters across. The track was recently found in the year 2010. It has not been developed into a location for the public to visit, although, in the past, visitors were permitted to see the active dinosaur quarries. The quarries have yielded over a thousand fossils, including sauropods, titanosaurids, and ornithopods along with fossilized trees.

[-38.451510°, -68.724199°] WGS84 decimal degree coordinates

BRAZIL

Vale dos Dinossauros

The site, in the state of Paraiba, NE Brazil, lies along the Peixe River about 5 km northwest of the city of Sousa along route PB-391. The tracks are in a horizontal bed on the south side of the river, although apparently 37 other sites are found in the surrounding area. Tracks were left by allosaurus, iguanodons, and stegosaurus. The site is developed for tourists with set walkways. The tracks are found in both the Lower Cretaceous Antenor Navarro and Rio Piranhas Formations.

[-6.734254°, -38.261903°]

BOLIVIA

Huellas de dinosaurios de Cal Ork’o, Sucre

These famous tracks located on the east side of Sucre are exposed in a steeply upturned bed that lies right next to an operating cement mine taking limestone from the El Molino Formation. While many large cities in South America have a reputation for heavy traffic, this dinosaur track location takes the record on the continent too for dinosaur congestion. The bed has more the 450 tracks representing eight different species. This location by far has the best quality and quantity of any track-ways in South America.

[-19.003533°, -65.235852°]

Niño Mayo Tracks

About 18 km to the west of Sucre is a place called Maragua that is very geological, but in a different sense that what the majority of the visitors understand. Many people refer to the reddish sedimentary rocks filling a broad flat circular depression as being a crater- NOPE. This is the trough of a syncline, the fold runs NW-SE and extends well beyond the immediate area of Maragua. The dinosaur tracks are found by following dirt road 5 km west over the ridge to the road’s end. The footprints are large, three toed, and likely similar to the Huallanca tracks of Peru, maybe belonging to a T-rex.

[-19.060714°, -65.475920°]

Torotoro tracks

Tracks can be found around the small town of Torotoro, which is the closest inhabited area to the Canyon de Vergel National Park. Some of the flat lying beds have very large tracks. Over 2,500 footprints have been found, mostly from sauropods and theropods. The circular footprints are the size of large pizzas, and the depressions are deep.

[-18.131065°, -65.761567°; town location]

CHILE

Termas del Flaco tracks

About a two-hour drive south from Santiago, and then up a narrow canyon high into the Andes, one takes the road leading to the hot springs called Termas del Flaco. Near the end of the road, beyond the defunct insane asylum, the dinosaur tracks are on the north side of the canyon in a steeply dipping bed. A tourist trail ascends the talus slopes to reach the base of the tracks. The footprints are in the Jurassic Baños del Flaco Formation. Thirteen different ornithopod, theropod, and sauropod tracks make this site an exceptional one. Since 1967 the location has been protected under Chile’s Monumento Palentológico Nacional, and yet remains hardly developed.

[-34.955875°, -70.424759°]

COLOMBIA

Chiquiza tracks

The Chiquiza tracks, in the Boyacá department of Colombia, are preserved in the Jurassic Arcabuco Formation. The tracks are in the Iguaque Sanctuary, 120 km NE of Bogota, and 5 km south of the town of Villa de Leiva. The tracks come from sites located on the southeast side of the ridge called Morro Negro. The formation is tilted, such that the exposed beds are steeply inclined and are somewhat difficult to approach. Tracks include those of theropods, sauropods and ornithopods. Also in the region, near the town of Sachica, dinosaur fossils have been found. This location has not been developed for visitors.

[ 5.604862, -73.497984; approximate]

PERU

Huallanca tracks

In northern Peru, along the highway near the town of Huallanca, which sits to the southeast of the Cordillera Blanca-Huascaran national park, are some fine large terapod tracks. A sign has been placed at the small pull out. The tracks are in vertical beds in the highway roadcut and are part of the Pariahuanca Formation.

[-9.807702°, -77.047497°]

URUGUAY

Tacuarembó tracks

Theropods tracks in the late Jurassic Tacuarembó Formation, located near the city of Tacuarembó, preserve 19 footprints in a flat lying sandstone bed. Tacuarembó is about 253 km north of Montevideo; the site is 28 km east of Tacuarembó along Route 26. This site is supposed to become a national monument. The trace fossils were described by Valeria Mesa and Daniel Perea (2015) in the journal called Ichnos.

[-31.760501, -55.700101]