A media and public success, the meeting with the population of Baunei organized on Friday in the mountain center by the geology and paleontology experts who in recent days announced the discovery of a dinosaur footprint in the limestone mountains of Baunei.
Footprints of a tetrapod, bideped dinosaur, which in the graphic reconstructions shown was named “Bibi”. Stefano Ginesu and Antonio Assorgia, retired university professors of geology - who together with the professor of the University of Sassari Stefania Sias discovered the footprint - fascinated the many people present in the room with a geology lesson that allowed them to better understand the particular characteristics and the importance of such a discovery.
"We can say that we are living a historic moment for all of Sardinia - explained Ginesu - because for the first time fossil traces of dinosaurs have been documented, for now in the form of footprints, in Sardinian rocks; the opinion expressed by the paleontologist of the University of Sassari Marzo Zedda was fundamental, and soon the data of our research will be published in scientific journals in the sector".
The presentation-lesson also allowed those who approached the event completely unfamiliar with geological sciences to better contextualize everything. "We are talking about a Sardinia that did not yet exist - Ginesu and Assorgia remarked - because 165 million years ago the rocks that are now in the middle of the Mediterranean were attached to the continental mass that would later become North America; now we need to think about how to best protect the site, which could reveal other surprises to us". And so for a few days in Baunei and the surrounding area there has been "dinosaur mania", complete with viral "memes", with dinosaurs as protagonists walking between the Golgo plateau and the Goloritzè coast. And there are those who are already thinking about a return in terms of tourism, if future research confirms the existence of a site rich in prehistoric evidence".
Mayor Stefano Monni, for his part, called into question by the public as a decisive administrative figure in similar situations, in relation to the protection and enhancement interventions that are looming on the horizon, has pledged to work to ensure that the enormous potential of such a discovery does not fall into the void.
