Dinosaurus footprintas and trackways of la Rioja / Следы (отпечатки следов) динозавров и тропа Риоха

The Spanish province of La Rioja is an area of the world where a huge number of dinosaur footprints have been found, with many more likely yet to be discovered. This hilly region has many rock slopes with layers so full of tracks that, if the vegetation, loose rock, and debris could be removed, would yield from 8000 to as many as 25,000 footprints. Using the best estimates from some slopes – that is, the maximum estimate from that partial data – there may be as many as 70,000 footprints. Many of the footprints are so easy to see that the first people to discover them were likely shepherds or hunters who passed through the area. However, the identity of the first person to correctly interpret them is another question. The footprints are so evocative that the inhabitants of the region have long associated them with animals. In the villages of Enciso, El Villar, and Poyales, there were people who thought the footprints now understood to be those of theropod dinosaurs had been made by giant chickens. In the village of Navalsaz, it was said that the ornithopod footprints of the Cuesta de Andorra had been made by huge lions. It is difficult to know exactly how long such claims have been made, whether the local population even knew about wild animals such as lions, or whether this interpretation was offered by visitors to the region.