Dinosaurs Discovered in Marocche Biotope Near Brescia, Experts Confirm

Just a few minutes from the northeastern border of the province of Brescia, in the Marocche di Dro, in the lower Sarca region of Trentino, there is a protected area under observation, like the other biotopes in the nearby province, which borders ours.

Discoveries about the Marocche

Recently, Marco Avanzini – a geologist at the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences – intervened with other experts after a forest ranger, Matteo Campolongo, noticed some strange tracks, a series of depressions impressed on the surface of a large limestone block.

It was last autumn, and as months passed, hypotheses turned into certainties. In fact, after inspections and examinations, it was confirmed “beyond any doubt” that the tracks belonged to dinosaurs.

The Marocche area is well known among Brescians who visit Trentino. Located just after the town of Riva, it is recognizable by a large series of boulders that clearly suggest a mound resulting from successive landslides.

The landslide and its origin

It was precisely one of these landslides, which occurred about 2000 years ago, that caused a huge mass of material to tumble down the valley, detached from the upper part of Monte Brenta, which then crushed onto a Roman settlement.

At that location, a significant amount of material fell in subsequent moments, to the point that the Marocche di Dro can be considered the largest landslide in the Alps.

The certainties developed by Avanzini and other experts from the Trento Museum are well founded. In fact, they have been working confidently on this topic for about ten years, and now, the “dinosaur tracks” at Lavini di Marco, near Rovereto, are well known even to Brescians.

Features of the rocks and fossil traces

The rock formation of the Marocche (grey limestones) dates from a period after that of the Lavini di Marco.

Having established this, by delving into the recent discovery of dinosaur tracks at the Marocche, Avanzini suggests they are very similar to those of Schelidosaurus, a specimen for which traces have been found in Great Britain.

However, there is a second line of evidence, left by a prosauropod. In this case, it concerns a quadruped herbivore, a certainty based on the analysis of the “toes”, which are broad, rounded, and lack the pointed claws at the tips.

This characteristic is typical of carnivores, which – despite having five “toes” – only touch the ground with the three central ones. One of the dinosaurs from Dro was about 6/7 meters long and weighed a few hundred kilograms.

It was undoubtedly smaller and different in type compared to the sauropods that left their tracks at Lavini di Marco.

A second specimen – a carnivore this time – belongs to the second line of evidence. It was probably a medium-sized ceratosaur biped (about 5.5 meters), with hind legs just over one meter long, moving at a speed of 4 kilometers per hour: an animal of this type could even exceed nine kilometers per hour.

Trace analysis and determinations

Analysis of the footprints reveals a wealth of information. For example, the initial footprints show that the tracks of the hind limbs overlap with those of the front limbs, and that the distance between one print and the next is short; in this case, the animal had not yet begun running.

As the examination progresses, it becomes evident that the rear and front footprints rest on different points, and the distance between them increases. This suggests that the dinosaur was accelerating its pace and speed.

It was possible to determine (based on these and other variables through a complex series of calculations) the distance between the limbs, as well as the weight and speed of the animal, which in our case was less active than its peers and traveled at between one and two kilometers per hour.