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Fieldwork, May to July, 2004, on the island of
Hvar, Croatia
Project Funding National Geographic, CRE Grant
NSERC
PROJECT TEAM University of Alberta Michael
Caldwell, Arjun Keswani, Murray Gingras, Cajus
Diedrich, Alex Dutchak, Timon Bullard Croatian
National Museum of Natural History Jakov
Radovcic, Katarina Krismanjic Anne Schulp
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The island of Hvar is part of the Dalmatian
Island chain along the Adriatic Coast of Croatia.
Italy forms the western shore of the Adriatic.
Hundreds of years ago, during quarry operations
to collect platy limestones for roofing
tiles, numerous fossils of fishes and marine
lizards, all dating from the earliest part of the
Upper Cretaceous were collected. Many of these
ended up in the collections of wealthy people
and churches. Today, most of these specimens are
in museum collections in Vienna, London, Trieste,
Zagreb, and Munich. In the summer of 2004 we
returned to Hvar to prospect for more specimens -
on of the first such scientific projects in 100
years.
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View of the northern peninsula from the highlands
to the east. The village of Vrboska is to the
right of center. The highland to the north (top
right in the photo) is the Island of Brac.
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The village of Vrboska as seen the front step of
our pension. The roofs of the buildings are
tiled now, but historically they were covered in
fossil-bearing platy limestones.
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Hvar is covered in beautiful fields of lavender.
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We walked the coastline of the entire northern
peninsula, measuring the rocks, observing and
collecting fossils, and developed a detailed
understanding of the ancient environments in
which these sediments were deposited.
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In blistering 40C heat, we opened a large quarry
in the anticline above Vrboska. Amidst relic
from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Venetian
Empire, to name but a few, we went hunting
for ancient reptiles.
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An example of an old stone house with its stone
roof, nestled in the ancient vineyards that
cover the lowlands on Hvar. People have been
living here for thousands of yearsthe evidence
is everywhere. In the background you can see
large stone fencesthe rock was moved into fences
in order to expose the thin red soil, or terra
rossa that is a central soil characteristic
arising from the erosion of limestones.
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The Fossils
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Algae
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Algae
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Ichno fossils Tracks and traces
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Thalassinoides sp. (a compressed shrimp burrow)
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We also discovered and excavated a dinosaur
trackway. This discovery made world headlines as
it was the first known dinosaur trackway from the
Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.
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Fossil Molluscs
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Some of the invertebrates
SNAIL
OYSTER
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Rudist bivalves and other small oysters (rudists
were large bivalved molluscs with asymmetrical
valves, unlike a clam. Rudists had one valve
shaped like a large ice cream cone, while
the other was a small cap that fitted over the
top of the cone.)
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Colonies of rudists in life position (you are
looking down the top of the cone)
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Fishes
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A diverse fauna of teleosts and pycnodonts is
known from Hvar.
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Marine Lizards Discovering new specimens of
these animals was the goal of this project
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Aigialosaurus dalmaticus
Publication from Caldwell Lab
Dutchak, A., and Caldwell, M.W 2006.
Redescription of Aigialosaurus dalmaticus Kramberg
er, 1892, a Cenomanian mosasauroid lizards from
Hvar Island, Croatia. Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences, 431821-1834.
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Opetiosaurus bucchichi
Manuscript in Preparation
Alex R. Dutchak and Michael W. Caldwell, A
redescription of Aigialosaurus (Opetiosaurus)
bucchichi (Kornhuber, 1901) (Squamata
Aigialosauridae) with comments on Mosasauroid
Systematics
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Pontosaurus lesinensis (Type Specimen,Vienna) Pub
lication from Caldwell Lab Pierce, S., and
Caldwell, M.W. 2004. Redescription and
phylogenetic position of the Adriatic(Upper
Cretaceous Cenomanian) dolichosaur, Pontosaurus
lesinensis (Kornhuber, 1873). Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, 24376-389.
Prior to our arrival in Zagreb, a new specimen of
Pontosaurus was donated to the museum. We are
currently describing this new and Exciting
specimen.
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Sedimentology Depositional Environments
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We measured and described rock units from
ancient environments similar to modern back reef
lagoons and intertidal flats
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Open Ocean
Patch Reefs
Lagoon
Barrier Reef
Coast
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This schematic nicely illustrates a similar sort
of environment as the one we have interpreted
from the sediments of Hvar. The fossil
reptiles are found in sediments deposited in the
lagoonal setting away from the reef.
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Evironments like this can be restricted and
hypersaline on a rather frequent basis. Animals
that die in such hostile environs and often
remain unscavenged. If fossilized, they are
often beautifully preserved.