The dinosaur rise in the Southern Alps: field trip to the Lavini di Marco tracksite (Early Jurassic, NE Italy)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3301/GFT.2026.09 - Pages: 1-23

¹Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Via Orabona, 4, 70125 Bari, Italy.

²MUSE - Museo delle Scienze di Trento, Corso del Lavoro e della Scienza, 3, 38122 Trento, Italy.

³Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy.

⁴Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy.

⁵Istituto Cavanis, Dorsoduro 898, Venezia 30123, Italy.
⁶Club Speleologico Proteo di Vicenza, Vicenza, Italy.

Corresponding e-mail address: matteo.antonelli@uniba.it

The one-day field trip to the Lavini di Marco tracksite (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, NE Italy) offers the opportunity to appreciate one of the most extensive and interesting European dinosaur tracksites. The ichnoassemblage, Hettangian in age, is constituted by numerous quadrupedal trackways, referred to medium-sized sauropodomorphs, and hundreds of tridactyl footprints, produced by small- to large-sized theropods. The itinerary, developed in six stops, will focus on the most significant occurrences of the tracksite, highlighting the theropod biodiversity revealed by numerous tridactyl tracks, such as ROLM 198, ROLM 137 and ROLM 219, and the most spectacular and relevant quadrupedal trackways, such as ROLM 26, known as the "rock-climbing dinosaur" trackway, and ROLM 577, holotype of the ichnospecies Lavinipes cheminii.

ichnology, theropods, sauropodomorphs, Hettangian, Trento Carbonate Platform.