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Dinosaur Tracks from Brazil is the first full-length study of dinosaurs in Brazil. Some 500 dinosaur trackways from the Cretaceous period still remain in the Rio do Peixe basins of Brazil, making it one of the largest trackways in the world. Veteran palaontologists Giuseppe Leonardi and Ismar de Souza Carvalho painstakingly document and analyze each track found at 37 individual sites and at approximately 96 stratigraphic levels.
Richly illustrated and containing a wealth of data, Leonardi and de Souza Carvalho brilliantly reconstruct the taxonomic groups of the dinosaurs from the area and show how they moved across the alluvial fans, meandering rivers, and shallow lakes of ancient Gondwana.
Foreword, by James O. Farlow
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Geological Context of the Footprints
4. The Ichnofaunas of the Rio do Peixe Basins and Their Trackmakers
5. Data Tables and Statistics
6. The Trackmakers of the Ichnofaunas of the Rio do Peixe Basins
7. Behavior of the Rio do Peixe Basins Dinosaurs
8. The Dinosaur Community
9. Invertebrate Trails and Traces
10. Localities Visited Without Vertebrate Ichnological Results
11. Protections Acts
Farewell
References
Appendix A: Glossary of Brazilian Geographical Names and Terms
Appendix B: Dates of the Discovery of the Tracksites and Their Discoverers
Appendix C: Codes and Localities
Index
Giuseppe Leonardi is an associate senior researcher in the Department of Geology at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints.
Ismar de Souza Carvalho is a professor in the Department of Geology at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
"There is a South American lost world waiting to be explored, one which allows at least indirect glimpses of living dinosaurs. It comprises the Rio do Peixe Basins of northeastern Brazil, which preserve one of the world's great assemblages of fossil footprints and trackways of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic land animals. Such trace fossils hold a special fascination for paleontologists like myself who so desperately want to know what living dinosaurs were like, because they record moments in the lives of the long-dead animals, revealing how they moved and interacted with each other. Leonardi and Carvalho will be our guides, leading us through the lost world of the Rio do Peixe Basins. We will see many wonders: the traces made by dinosaurs and other long-dead animals with our physical eye, and in our mind's eye the fearfully great reptiles themselves. Prepare yourself for a scientific adventure!"
– James O. Farlow, author of Noah's Ravens: Interpreting the Makers of Tridactyl Dinosaur Footprints
"This is an incredibly comprehensive, detailed, look at the dinosaur tracks discovered from Brazil. Leonardi and Carvalho draw on their decades of experience to methodically describe the tracks and tracksites from the country. Tracksites and specimens are systematically detailed with numerous photos, drawings, and reconstructions, and are placed in their wider geological and palaeobiological context. The authors are able to discuss dinosaur footprints that might have been first documented decades ago, while remaining cognizant of the most recent advances in dinosaur ichnology. The result is a volume that will form the basis of much future research, providing data and prompting new hypotheses."
– Peter L. Falkingham, Liverpool John Moores University
"When it comes to paleobiology, no fossil brings you closer to the organism than its tracks – those muddy marks of Cretaceous dinosaurs standing, striding, plodding, and even running amount to a rich record of ecosystems brought lovingly detailed by Leonardi and Carvalho. Dinosaur Tracks from Brazil lovingly combines all the detailed context that a specialist craves with beautiful artwork that brings the Brazilian dinosaurs to life."
– Andrew B. Heckert, Appalachian State University
