Lagosteiros Natural Monument | |
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Monumento Natural dos Lagosteiros | |
Location | Portugal |
Nearest city | Sesimbra |
Coordinates | 38°25′32.6″N9°12′58.8″W / 38.425722°N 9.216333°W |
Area | 5.8 ha (14 acres) |
Designation | May 7, 1997 . |
Governing body | Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests |
Website | http://monumentos.gov.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=30891 |
The Lagosteiros Natural Monument, near Cape Espichel, in Sesimbra, Portugal, is a Portuguese protected area created in 1997, consisting of dinosaur trackway ichnites. [2]
The Lagosteiros site is included within the Lusitanian Basin and is the most recent dinosaur track site in the Cabo Espichel region, having been formed approximately 130 to 120 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous, when the western margin of Portugal had flat, marshy and muddy terrains. Those soft sediments eventually lithified into limestone strata, thus preserving the footprints of the dinosaurs that there roamed. [3] Tectonic motion in the region has rotated the strata from its original horizontal layout to a north-dipping attitude of 45°. [4]
Of great natural beauty, the Lagosteiros Natural Monument and its tracks are nowadays located on, and immediately adjacent to, the edge of the cliff that defines the northern side of the Lagosteiros Bay, and approximately 1400 meters away NNE from Cape Espichel. The tracks are visible in a stratum of yellowish-brown limestone. [3]
Due to the strata's northwards dip, and the cliff walls that further rise above the site to the east, the best time of the day for visiting is during the afternoon, when the Sun strikes the rock bed at a good angle, shading the tracks in contrast with the illuminated rock, as seen in the photographs here. During a short period around the winter solstice, the Sun will not rise high enough in the sky to illuminate the natural monument, leaving it shaded.
Tracks of bipedal dinosaurs, theropods and herbivores are visible on the surface, in different orientations. Among the numerous tracks, a long main trackway stands out with large footprints, attributed to a bipedal animal. An approximately rectangular mark is visible on the side of this trail, possibly a tail mark. Theropod tracks feature the characteristic tridactyl footprints, pointed at the ends of the digits. [3]
The Paluxy River, also known as Paluxy Creek, is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of 29 miles (47 km) before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen Rose, Texas in south central Somervell County.
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Cape Espichel is a cape situated on the western coast of the civil parish of Castelo, municipality of Sesimbra, in the Portuguese district of Setúbal, at the very southwestern corner of the Setubal Peninsula. It is characterized by a very acute protrusion of the coastline into the Atlantic Ocean, and it consists of a promontory plateau, over 130 meters above sea level, defined by dramatic, sheer cliffs all around the delimitation of the cape against the ocean.
The location offers elevated sweeping views, from Cascais and the Sintra Mountains, and the Caparica coast to the north, and to the southeast the beaches south of Tróia and beyond to Sines.
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The Aire Range Dinosaur Tracks Natural Monument, also known as Ourém - Torres Novas Dinosaur Tracks Natural Monument, is a natural monument in the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park, Portugal, known for its long and well-preserved sauropod trackways. When discovered, it had the single longest known sauropod trackway in the world at 147 m (482 ft) long.
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