Altamura's Dinosaur footprints

In an old quarry near Altamura, Italy (about 20 km from Matera) at least 4,000 dinosaurs footprints were discovered in 1999.

This discovery is the most important of its kind in Europe and one of the most remarkable in the world: the footprints, ranging from 5 to 45 cm
(2 in. - 1'6”) are spread over a surface of 12,000 square metres (about 14350 square yards) and belong to at least 200 specimens including Theropods (meaning “beast feet”, the only carnivorous species found), Iguanodonts, Sauropods, Ceratopsids and Achelousaurus.

The footprints were impressed in the late Cretaceous (99.6–65.5 Millions of years ago) in the mud of a wide marshland and they are so amazingly well-preserved that one can still see the creases of the dinosaurs' thick skin.

Until this incredible discovery, scholars thought there was no emerged land in that area before dinosaurs' extinction, but they were evidently wrong: following the footprints, one can recognize different tracks and, with a little imagination, still feel the presence of these gigantic animals of the past.

In 2006, Altamura's dinosaurs valley has been added to the Unesco Tentative List, together with the nearby Lamalunga cave (where the complete skeleton of a prehistoric man was found) and the crater-like karstic doline known as "Pulo di Altamura".

If you are willing to visit the dinosaurs valley and learn much more about these mysterious animals right in the place where they used to live, please contact us.