DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwwx
title: Data from: A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland

description: Although globally scarce, Middle Jurassic dinosaur tracks are known from
 the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and help indicate the palaeoenvironmental
 preferences and behaviour of major dinosaur clades. Here, we report an
 extensive new tracksite from Skye: 131 in-situ dinosaur tracks at Prince
 Charles’s Point on the Trotternish Peninsula. The tracks occur in multiple
 horizons of rippled sandstones of the Late Bathonian aged Kilmaluag
 Formation, part of the Great Estuarine Group, which formed in a locally,
 shallowly submerged marginal lagoon. We assign these tracks to two
 morphotypes, further divided into four morphotype subgroups, most likely
 representing large megalosaurid theropods, and sauropods that are either
 non-neosauropods or basal neosauropods. The trackways, although relatively
 short, evidence time-averaged milling behaviour, as observed at other
 tracksites in the Great Estuarine Group. The presence of sequential manus
 and pes sauropod tracks amends their previous identification by geologists
 as fish resting burrows, raising the potential that other such structures
 locally and globally may in fact be dinosaur tracks, and emphasises the
 predominant occurrence of sauropods in lagoonal palaeoenvironments in the
 Great Estuarine Group. At Prince Charles’s Point, however, unlike
 previously described lagoonal assemblages, large theropod trackmakers are
 more abundant than sauropods.  
description: The photogrammetric models contained in this dataset were
 generated using photographs processed in Agisoft Metashape (Version
 1.8.0). The photographs were taken using a DJI Matrice 300 RTK UAV with a
 payload of a 45-megapixel Zenmuse P1 camera, or handheld using a Nikon
 D5600.  Further processing and workflow details are
 outlined in the main manuscript or README file accompanying this
 data. 
description: # README file for photogrammetric models and associated data with ##
 "**A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and
 sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland**"
 **Compiled by Tone Blakesley - 30th June 2024**
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwwx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwwx) This dataset contains photogrammetric models used to describe dinosaur tracks and characterise morphotypes present at the Prince Charles's Point tracksite on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Photographs and dGPS ground control point data used in their construction are also included.  ## Contents The data provided here is divided into the following: A - **README.md** * This file outlines the contents of this dataset.  B - **20230420_PCP_A.csv** * This .csv file contains post-processed WGS 84 datum coordinates of ground control points (GCPs) used to geospatially constrain photogrammetric models which featured multiple GCPs. Models which used this data include the entire tracksite and sections. These are accordingly formatted and can be imported into the 'reference' pane of Agisoft Metashape.  C - **Prince_Charles-s_Point_UAV_imagery_dataset.zip** * This .zip file contains 1,253 .jpg format photographs of the Prince Charles's Point tracksite taken at nadir and oblique angles using a Zemuse P1 camera attached to a DJI Matrice 300 RTK unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at 12 m above the ground. The image resolution is 45-megapixels. A total of 928 nadir photographs were used to build a photogrammetric model of the entire tracksite. Oblique images were used to enhance the model resolution for two track clusters in 'Section One' and 'Section Two'. Note - the remaining set of .zip files contain photogrammetric models ranging from isolated tracks to the entire tracksite. Models of trackways, track associations, or individual tracks, are all prefixed with a site-specific name to denote: the locality (‘PC’ for Prince Charles’s Point); clade designation (‘TH’ for theropods, ‘SA’ for sauropods, ‘U’ for unidentified); ‘A’ for associated tracks or ‘I’ for isolated individual tracks (if applicable); trackway/track association number (if applicable); and track number. ‘PC-TH-1-07’ for example is theropod trackway one and track seven at the locality. All photogrammetric models are planed.  Due to large file sizes, some photogrammetric models are best opened on desktop or workstation computers with high memory (RAM) capacity (preferably 32 gb or greater), advanced CPUs (e.g. Intel i7 onwards) and graphics cards (e.g. NVIDIA Ampere or GeForce series). D - **Full_tracksite_model.zip** * This .zip file contains a complete textured photogrammetric model of the entire tracksite, named 'Prince-Charles-Point-complete-planed-ply-north-v2.ply'. Note the model is a lower resolution than section or trackway specific models.  E - **Section models.zip** * Textured photogrammetric models for both track section clusters are named 'Section-One-planed.ply' and 'Section-Two-planed.ply'. F - **Track models.zip** * Contained in this .zip file are all the photogrammetric models of trackways, track associations, and individual tracks (includes isolated tracks) used in this study. Detailed below are the model file type, size, and data (photo set) used to generate each textured photogrammetric model. Models were generating using photographs taken on a 45-megapixel resolving Zenmuse P1 attached to a UAV or 24.2-megapixel resolving handheld Nikon D5600 camera. Each are divided into corresponding folders. The 'trackway' folder contains: 1. PC-TH-1-and-2.ply - 3.98 gb - generated from handheld photographs 2. PC-TH-3-planed-v2.obj - 92.2 mb - generated from UAV photographs 3. PC-TH-4.obj - 547 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  4. PC-TH-5-planed.obj - 676 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  5. PC-TH-6.obj - 130 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  6. PC-SA-1-planed.obj - 306 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-One-planed' 7. PC-SA-2.obj - 71.3 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-One-planed' 8. PC-SA-3.obj - 384 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  9. PC-SA-5.ply - 1.88 gb - generated from handheld photographs The 'track association' folder contains:  1. PC-TH-A-1.obj - 151 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-One-planed'  2. PC-TH-A-2.obj - 45.7 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-One-planed'  3. PC-TH-A-3.obj - 47.2 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  4. PC-TH-A-4.obj - 280 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  5. PC-TH-A-5.obj - 193 mb - cropped out and planed from 'Section-Two-planed'  The 'individual track' folder contains (in order of track number): 1. PC-TH-I-1-planed.obj - 979 mb - generated from handheld imagery 2. PC-TH-I-16-planed.obj - 16.4 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-1-planed.obj' 3. PC-TH-4-26.ply - 416 mb - generated from handheld imagery 4. PC-TH-4-28.ply - 387 mb - generated from handheld imagery 5. PC-TH-4-29.ply - 372 mb - generated from handheld imagery 6. PC-TH-5-34.ply - 249 mb - generated from handheld imagery 7. PC-TH-5-35.ply - 320 mb - generated from handheld imagery 8. PC-TH-5-38.ply - 402 mb - generated from handheld imagery 9. PC-TH-5-40.ply - 327 mb - generated from handheld imagery 10. PC-TH-6-44-planed.obj - 19.7 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-6.obj' 11. PC-TH-6-45-planed.obj - 18.4 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-6.obj' 12. PC-TH-I-46.obj - 12.8 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-3.obj' 13. PC-TH-A-3-47-planed.obj - 12.8 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-3.obj' 14. PC-TH-A-3-48-planed.obj - 11.8 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-3.obj' 15. PC-TH-A-4-49-planed.obj - 17.9 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-4.obj'  16. PC-TH-A-4-50-planed.obj - 16.4 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-4.obj'  17. PC-TH-I-55.obj - 428 mb - generated from handheld imagery 18. PC-TH-I-56.ply - 287 mb - generated from handheld imagery 19. PC-TH-I-59.obj - 206 mb - generated from handheld imagery 20. PC-TH-A-5-60-planed.obj - 20.6 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-5.obj'  21. PC-TH-A-5-61-planed.obj - 17.6 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-TH-A-5.obj'  22. PC-SA-1-79-80-planed.obj - 59.4 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-1-planed.obj' 23. PC-SA-1-82-planed.obj - 29.5 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-1-planed.obj' 24. PC-SA-3-111-planed.obj - 31 mb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-3.obj' 25. PC-SA-5-127-planed.obj - 1.07 gb - cropped and planed from 'PC-SA-5.ply'. G - **Trackway_model_photo_sets.zip** This .zip contains handheld photographs of three trackways taken on a Nikon D5600 and includes: 1. PC-TH-1 and 2 - 4.96 gb 2. PC-SA-5 - 3.68 gb H - **Individual_track_model_photo_sets.zip** This .zip contains handheld photographs of individual tracks including:  1. PC-TH-3-20 - 704 mb 2. PC-TH-4-26 - 838 mb 3. PC-TH-4-28 - 833 mb 4. PC-TH-4-29 - 1 gb 5. PC-TH-5-34 - 755 mb 6. PC-TH-5-35 - 713 mb 7. PC-TH-5-38 - 750 mb 8. PC-TH-5-40 - 799 mb 9. PC-TH-I-55 - 999 mb 10. PC-TH-I-56 - 733 mb 11. PC-TH-I-59 - 642 mb ## Code/Software Rstudio was used to generate windrose diagrams to highlight the bearings of dinosaur tracks and ripples (opposite tracks if present) using the 'openair' library. All input data was saved in a .csv file named 'mydata' (R cannot read any other file name or type using this method to generate a windrose). The 'mydata' file contains two columns, named 'ws' (treatment number) and 'wd' (bearing). For dinosaur tracks, the treatment number corresponds to a specific trackway, association, or isolated tracks. For flow-directed ripples, the treatment number corresponds to ripples opposite associated trackways. A list of these treatment numbers and their corresponding tracks or ripples are provided in a dedicated spreadsheet. Additionally, for each track or ripple, a track orientation (TO) and ripple orientation (RO) class is provided to denote the angular range each is classified into. Windrose diagrams were exported from RStudio as .svg files at their default image size and relabelled/recoloured in Inkscape (1.2.2). The code executed to produce the track bearing windrose diagrams is as follows: ``` library(openair) View(mydata) ??windRose windRose(mydata, ws = "ws", wd = "wd", breaks=c(0,6,11,16,17,18), auto.text= FALSE, paddle = FALSE, annotate = FALSE, grid.line = 5, par.settings=list(axis.line=list(col="lightgray"))) ``` The code used to produce flow-directed ripple bearing windrose diagrams is as follows:  ``` library(openair) View(mydata) ??windRose windRose(mydata, ws = "ws", wd = "wd", breaks=c(0,5,8,12,15), auto.text= FALSE, paddle = FALSE, annotate = FALSE, grid.line = 10, par.settings=list(axis.line=list(col="lightgray"))) ```