The Sheffield Dinosaur Track Research Group has been making a special study of the dinosaur footprints of the Ravenscar Group (middle Jurassic) of the Cleveland area of Yorkshire. In addition related projects are being or have been carried out on aspects of footprint preservation and on the non-dinosaur biotas and sedimentology of the Ravenscar Group.

Trackway of Deltapodus brodricki

Dinosaur Footprints were first definitely recorded from the Ravenscar Group in 1906 but have generally been regarded as having little more than curiosity value. The work of the Sheffield group has however shown that the footprints are more common and more varied in type than has been generally supposed. This conclusion has been amply supported by the systematic surveying and recording which has been carried out by volunteers on Earthwatch Projects. Over twenty different vertebrate track types including those of sauropods and stegosaurs as well as bipedal theropods and ornithopods have now been identified from the Ravenscar Group.

The studies of the dinosaur footprints are giving an insight into the character and behaviour of the dinosaur communities of the Yorkshire and of how they changed with time and with changes in the local palaeoenvironment. This is increasing our understanding of the environmental history of the local region and of the importance of dinosaurs as an environmental factor within it. In addition information is being gained on the palaeoecology and behaviour of particular dinosaur groups. Trackway information can also be used to shed light on dinosaur gaits and to estimate speeds of movement. The middle Jurassic was a time of diversification of the dinosaurs but in global terms skeletal remains are relatively scarce and thus footprint assemblages such as the Yorkshire material represent internationally significant repositories of information about these dinosaurs.

Dinosaur footprints area a particularly good way of 'Walking with Dinosaurs'.

Dinosaur Eggs

Large clutch of Paraspheroolithus eggs.

The following images of Chinese material are available. These were taken with an AGFA digital camera which was kindly supplied by AGFA Ltd.

1. View of countryside in the Xixia Basin. Note the red colour of the rocks which are dipping to the right.
2. Dinosaur egg site showing red beds.
3. Close up of Paraspheroolithus clutch.
4. Macroelongatoolithus eggs.

A further stage in the collaboration took place when Professor Zhang Zhenyu of the Henan Research Institute of Geography visited Sheffield between May 1999 and May 2000 on a Royal Society K.C. Wong Fellowship. In addition Dr M. Whyte visited Henan for joint field-work and museum studies in November and December 1999. During this visit Professor Li, Professor Zhang and Dr Whyte carried out fieldwork in Lingbao in west Henan. There they investigated reports of a very large dinosaur egg, which proved to be the carapace of a fossil giant tortoise. However, when visiting the Nanchou section, they made the first in situ finds of eggshell material from the Lingbao Basin.

1. Nanchou section of upper Cretaceous red beds in the Lingbao Basin.
2. Large in situ fragment of elongatoolithid eggshell.
3. Mr Nieng, Professor Li, and Professor Zhang discussing a find.

For further information on post graduate research in Palaeontology please complete our on-line Postgraduate Enquiry Form or contact:-

Dr M.A. Whyte or Dr M. Romano
Department of Geography,
University of Sheffield,
Dainton Building,Brookhill,
Sheffield, S3 7HF,
U. K.
Tel:- (0114) 222 3610/11
Fax:- (0114) 222 3650
Email:-geology@sheffield.ac.uk

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