Storms that built a graveyard: ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site
Researchers have reconstructed the climate of a Late Cretaceous fossil site in Italy, revealing it was a tropical coastline impacted by intense monsoons. The site, known as Villaggio del Pescatore, provides a rare, high-resolution look at dinosaur life and challenges previous theories about dwarfism in the species Tethyshadros insularis.
Why it matters
This study provides critical insights into ancient climate patterns and evolutionary biology, correcting previous misconceptions about the size and habitat of European dinosaurs.
Around 80 million years ago, a stretch of tropical coastline in what is now north-eastern Italy was lashed by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Those storms swept dinosaur carcasses, crocodiles, plants and river mud onto a tidal flat, where the tides and a film of microbes sealed everything away with extraordinary preservation.
My colleagues and I have published a new study that reconstructs the violent tropical climate behind the Villaggio del Pescatore Lagerstätte near Trieste and reveals it preserves just four decades of life, recorded almost day by day.
The Villaggio del Pescatore site near Trieste is one of the most important Late Cretaceous fossil localities in the Mediterranean. It is the only known site in the region to preserve large land animals, including dinosaurs such as Tethyshadros insularis , from the final 15 million years or so of the age of dinosaurs.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in