The marks, potentially signifying a sea turtle scramble, were spotted on a rock wall in Italy by climbers.(Image credit: Paolo Sandroni)ShareShare by:
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Italian rock climbers came upon what seems to be evidence of a sea turtle dash dating back roughly 80 million years. Currently, fresh investigations indicate these primeval marine reptiles were escaping from a quake.
The climbers understood the value of what they had discovered, as the marks in the rock surface on Monte Cònero that faces the Adriatic Sea echoed others that had garnered attention earlier in the year. These marks had been located in a separate section of the same regional park and were thought to be made by a Cretaceous marine reptile pressing its fins into the ocean floor. They talked to fellow climber and geologist, Paolo Sandroni, who then spoke with Alessandro Montanari, director of the Coldigioco Geological Observatory (OGC).
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Sandroni and another member of the group revisited the area to gather rock samples and record the location using a drone.
Hundreds of such tracks are located on a layer of the Scaglia Rossa limestone within Cònero Regional Park, an arrangement that has undergone detailed examination for decades and conserves millions of years of deep sea sedimentation, according to study co-author Montanari told Live Science.
What presently forms a piece of a mountain was previously a profound seabed, folded over and driven upwards by geological pressures millions of years ago, he noted. Rock samples obtained promptly above the marks and analyzed by the team reveal crucial hints regarding the tracks’ location and the tale behind them. For instance, they imply the sea turtles existed about 79 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period, showing that the limestone was a part of an underwater mudslide caused by a seismic event.
Extensive seismic movement within this composition is additionally reinforced by decades of pooled research. Thin section slides of the rock specimens expose microfossils of creatures that dwell along the seabed, indicating a seafloor environment many meters deep.
Researchers claim the marks seem to be from turtles hurrying away from a seismic event that led to an underwater slide.
Generally, any traces deposited by animals would be wiped away by currents along the ocean floor and “worms, clams and [other] benthic organisms,” Montanari stated. “They practically cultivate the seafloor,” he mentioned. But a quake triggered an underwater mudslide shortly after the marks were created, safeguarding them, he clarified.
The only vertebrates large enough to create these marks in the Late Cretaceous era were marine reptiles, such as sea turtles, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs. It is believed the latter two were mostly solitary, but, if ancient sea turtle conduct mirrored that of some present-day species, the researchers suggest, it is plausible they may have hunted close to the coast or exited the water to drop their eggs. Whatever gathered them together, a seismic event caused them to all bolt at once, the team proposed in the research, forcing some of the turtles to swim upward in the water toward the open sea, and others to hurry away closer to the deeper seafloor. The oncoming underwater avalanche propelled them further out of harm’s way.
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Michael Benton, professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., who had no role in the study, said the research illustrates the geological context clearly, but he doubted which animal made the marks.
“The tracks are peculiar because they seem to exhibit underwater grounding, where both forelimbs strike the sediment concurrently and the animal pushes forward,” he shared with Live Science. Most vertebrates often “walk or swim using their limbs out of sync” rather than placing two limbs down at the same time, he stated. “Marine turtles typically possess a very effective swimming mode,” he explained, “somewhat like underwater flight, where the front paddles swing around” in a pattern similar to a figure eight, which does not seem to match the marks discovered. He also questions why they wouldn’t simply “leave the ocean floor and swim” away.
Montanari mentioned that, even though the prints would gain from deeper research, it is evident, geologically, that an underwater avalanche occurred because of a quake. He conveyed his hope that their efforts will incite fossil specialists to examine the site further.
Jeanne TimmonsLive Science Contributor
Jeanne Timmons rediscovered her passion for paleontology later in life and eagerly started writing about it. Her work can be found in Gizmodo, Ars Technica, The New York Times and Scientific American.
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