An anatomy-consistent study of the Lopingian eolian tracks of Germany and Scotland reveals the first evidence of the end-Guadalupian mass extinction at low paleolatitudes of Pangea

Abstract

The poor preservation and apparent monospecifity of Permian tetrapod footprints from eolian paleoenvironments have thus far hampered their reliable interpretation. This study clarifies how this is due to distinct and repeated ichnotaphonomic effects on trackway pattern and footprint morphology on originally inclined planes. Once these effects are excluded, the anatomy-consistent ichnotaxobases useful for ichnotaxonomy can be recognized. Several nomina dubia are identified, among these the ichnogenus Chelichnus, here considered a taphotaxon. The eolian ichnoassociations from the Lopingian of Scotland and Germany include six different ichnotaxa: cf. Capitosauroides isp. (?eutheriodont therapsid), Dicynodontipus geinitzi (cynodont therapsid), Dolomitipes isp. (dicynodont therapsid), Pachypes loxodactylus n. comb. (pareiasaurian parareptile), Procolophonichnium isp. (small parareptile) and Rhynchosauroides isp. (non-archosauriform neodiapsid). This is completely different from the interpretations of the last 20 years, which postulated that these paleoenvironments comprised monospecific associations of synapsid tracks. These ichnoassociations are instead moderately diverse, similar to low-latitude marginal marine to floodplain ichnoassociations and belong to the Lopingian Paradoxichnium footprint biochron. The Cornberg Formation of Germany, being constrained between the Illawarra reversal and the mid-Wuchiapingian Kupferschiefer at the Rotliegend/Zechstein transition, constitutes the earliest evidence of Lopingian tetrapod faunas at low paleolatitudes and the first evidence of low-paleolatitude faunal turnover related to the end-Guadalupian mass extinction from both the skeleton and the track record. This suggests a global extension of the dinocephalian extinction event, which occurred at high-mid (South Africa and Russia) and low (Western Europe) paleolatitudes of Pangea about 259–260 Ma and was probably triggered by the eruption of the Emeishan Large Igneous Province of SW China, which considerably changed global environmental conditions in both marine and continental settings.