Museo Jurásico Asturias
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The Dinosaur Coast

Tazones Lighthouse Cliffs

The information panel is situated at the beginning of a path which starts on the left-hand side of the road leading to the lighthouse. The signs along this path show the way to the cliff, which lies 1300 m further away. Right here, on a slab of rock sloping slightly towards the sea, lies the first three-toed dinosaur footprint. From this point we walk on eastwarads along the botton of the cliff, and 200 m further ahead we reach the surface of a sandstone bed that is 25º seaward-inclined. This layer exhibits plenty of three-toed footprints which intersect in different directions forming several trackways, as well as a tail drag. The tail drag is a rare example in the fossil record, since, contrary to previously held beliefs, it is now known that dinosaurs walked with the tale outstretched to maintain balance.

faro-de-tazonesOn the surface of the adjacent strata with the same orientation we can also see varios manus and pes footprints of quadrupedal dinosaurs (plan view), as well as the vertical section of an extremely large track, possibly belonging to a sauropod.

Sixty metres further away in the same direction, on the vertical face of the cliff, we cand find other sections of quadrupedal dinosaur footprints, in the form of protuberances, filled with sandstone. These are found on the base of the sandstones strata or are encased in underlaying grey marls.

The set of rocks which these sites contain includes sandstones, mudstones and marls and it belongs to the Lastres Formation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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