The exploitation of opencast lignite in Fumanya has revealed
outcrops of extraordinary dinosaur footprints, the world's
largest outcrop of Maastrichtian sauropod tracks. The footprints
were originally created on a former calcareous lake bed which
has since been uplifted to form an impressive 50,000 square
metres rock face. This provides a panoramic view of thousands of
traces of dinosaur footprints of various types and sizes
preserved in the rock. There are traces that can be followed up
to 50 metres long. Footprints of titanosaurs are predominant, a
characteristic of the Maastrichtian sauropod. Titanosaurs, large
herbivores of the Upper Cretaceous, were some of the heaviest
creatures ever to walk the earth, and may have weighed up to 100
tonnes. The 3,000 dinosaur footprints found at Fumanya place
this site as the first in Europe and third in the world in
number of tracks after the Lark Quarry (Australia) and Chaoyang
(China). Panoramic view of the titanosaur dinosaur footprints at
The succession of exploite