|
|
In Asturias, we find evidence of the presence of dinosaurs exactly where sediment formations from the Second Era ( Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretacean), crop up, sediments which were once the actual ground upon which these animals walked.
When the dinosaurs walked on terrains of great plasticity (slimes and muds) they left their footprints "icnites" imprinted there, sometimes with such detail that one can distinguish the pads in the feet or the nails. Evidently, those areas were not yet petrified, but instead were clay soils in which the marks of their passing were easily recorded. On the other hand, the fact that these footprints are preserved at all is a matter of luck, since several factors have to take part in this process:
In the Asturian littorial, one can find two types of fossil "icnites". In some cases, the prints are obtained directly by the the animal’s stepping on the soil, leaving a sunken mark in negative relief. In others, one finds the natural mold which the footprints left in the upper sediment which covered them, creating a positive copy.
In Asturias, there is a strip along the ocean with abundant outcroppings of Second Era sediments, where formations are found which contain within their sediments the imprints of these ancient colonizers of the Earth. We refer to coastal deposits - ancient abrasion platforms which were once the sea bottom - extending between the municipalities of Villaviciosa and Ribadesella, whose formations are made up of accumulations of material from the Second Era or Mesozoic. These formations have their outcroppings precisely in cliff zones, where the mechanical action of the sea produces their slants towards the littoral, uncovers them, and gradually undermines them, provoking rockfalls which uncover the sediments containing the dinosaur prints. In the coastal strip between La Isla and Caravia, there are no footprints because the soil composition did not favor their production.The marsh and coastal areas were more ideal for conserving the marks which, covered rapidly by mud and sand sediments, reached a certain level of petrification. VEGA'S BEACH The
cliffs of Ribadesella are composed of Jurassic materials. These
formations are peppered with "icnites" and fossils
which are easily seen by strolling in the area. The first of
these is located a very few kilometers from the village. It is
the Playa de Vega, at whose eastern end one can see the outcrops
of Jurassic materials ( marl, sandstone, clay) which carry some
dinosaur imprints. RIBADESELLA'S BEACH Having reached Ribadesella, one finds another site at the western end of the beach, which can be easily accessed at the "Punto del Pozu" via a lookout (mirador). It is a long, stony area which is uncovered and accessible at low tide. It is a cliff composed of sandstone, marls, and limestone from the Upper Jurassic Era , where fragments bearing icnites have broken loose. The marks of a group of quadrupeds are easily visible on the cliff, pressed into what was once level ground but is now vertical. TEREÑES'S CLIFF
|
|
|
|
