A Comparison of the Dinosaur Communities from the Middle Jurassic of the Cleveland (Yorkshire) and Hebrides (Skye) Basins, Based on Their Ichnites

Despite the Hebrides and Cleveland basins being geographically close, research has not previously been carried out to determine faunal similarities and assess the possibility of links between the dinosaur populations. The palaeogeography of both areas during the Middle Jurassic shows that there were...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGeosciences (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 9; p. 327
Main Authors Romano, Mike, Clark, Neil, Brusatte, Stephen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2018
Subjects
Basins
Coastal plains
dinosaur
Dinosaurs
Earth science
Food chains
footprints
Fossils
ichnite
Jurassic
ornithopod
Palaeogeography
Populations
Predators
sauropod
Sediments
Shorelines
Skye
theropod
Yorkshire
Isle of Skye
Canada
United Kingdom > UK
United States > US
Scotland
North Sea
Portugal
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Despite the Hebrides and Cleveland basins being geographically close, research has not previously been carried out to determine faunal similarities and assess the possibility of links between the dinosaur populations. The palaeogeography of both areas during the Middle Jurassic shows that there were no elevated landmasses being eroded to produce conglomeratic material in the basins at that time. The low-lying landscape and connected shorelines may have provided connectivity between the two dinosaur populations. The dinosaur fauna of the Hebrides and Cleveland basins has been assessed based primarily on the abundant ichnites found in both areas as well as their skeletal remains. In the two basins, the dinosaur faunas are very similar, consisting of non-neosauropod eusauropods, a possible basal titanosauriform, large and small theropods and ornithopods and europodan thyreophorans. The main difference in the faunas is in the sizes. In the Cleveland Basin, the ichnites suggest that there were medium and large theropods alongside small to medium sized ornithopods, whereas, in the Hebrides Basin, the theropods were from small to large and the ornithopods were medium to large. It is suggested that migrations could have taken place between the two areas during the Middle Jurassic. A tentative food chain from the herbivorous dinosaurs to the top predators can be inferred from the footprints.
ISSN:2076-3263
2076-3263
DOI:10.3390/geosciences8090327