PHOTOGRAMMETRY AS A TOOL TO SUPPORT FIELDWORK ANALYSIS: A CASE STUDY IN BAJADA COLORADA (LOWER CRETACEOUS), NEUQUINA BASIN, PATAGONIA ARGENTINA

PALOMBI, DAMIANO; RIGUETTI, FACUNDO; GALLINA, PABLO ARIEL; CANALE JUAN IGNACIO

Congreso; 4th Paleontological Virtual Congress; 2023

The Bajada Colorada Formation (Berriasian-Valanginian) hosts one of the best-representative Early Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages, composed by the titanosaur Ninjatitan zapatai, the diplodocid Leinkupal laticauda, the dicraeosaurid Bajadasaurus pronuspinax, indeterminate theropods, such as abelisauroids and megalosaurids, as well as indeterminate thyreophoran ornithischians. Most of the specimens aforementioned come from the same quarry, mainly composed by isolated and intermixed bones and teeth. It can be challenging to associate certain fossils to a specific specimen due to the conditions of fossil accumulation, which is abundant in a restricted area. The present study is the first attempt to perform a taphonomic analysis at the site, using as a case study six sauropod caudal vertebrae found associated in a small area, few meters far from the main excavation. The photogrammetric software Agisoft Metashape (Version 1.8.4) was used to create eight 3D models representing different phases of the excavation during five days. Using photogrammetry as a field tool offers a three-dimensional image that provides better insight into the excavation site than a 2D scheme or photograph. This increases the comparative value and replicability of the analysis for other researchers unable to view the excavation site in person. Photogrammetry is intensively used in ichnology field work and similar generalizations of the use of this tool also in body fossils excavations will therefore allow greater accessibility to field data for both colleagues and reviewers, increasing the value of the resulting taphonomic studies or just supporting the skeletal association grade, for systematic purposes, in intermixed bone quarries.