Carboniferous tetrapod footprints from the Lublin Basin, SE Poland

Abstract

Evidence of tetrapod footprints is scarce in the Carboniferous rocks of Europe and only a dozen sites have been found. Here is presented the first description of the Carboniferous tetrapod traces collected from the Bogdanka Coal Mine, Lublin Basin, south-eastern Poland. The footprints occur in reddish, white-gray sandstone or black-brown siltstone-mudstone, fluvial and lacustrine in origin, of the Westphalian A and B (about 315 and 310 Ma, lower-middle Pennsylvanian) of the Lublin Formation. Based on the study of 19 specimens (isolated and usually poorly preserved manus or pes imprints), I discern two distinct types of tetrapod footprints and also problematic traces (or scratches) made by swimming tetrapods. Footprints are assigned to the two ichnotaxa: Batrachichnus–Limnopus plexus and aff. Pseudobradypus isp. Traces described as Tetrapoda indet. A–C represent poorly preserved footprints, which are similar to the ichnogenera Ichniotherium, Dimetropus and Attenosaurus. The described trace fossils were produced by small amphibians (temnospondyls) and medium-sized amniotes (reptiliomorphs and reptiles). The tetrapod ichnofauna from the Bogdanka Coal Mine is similar in composition to Pennsylvanian ichnofaunas from Europe and North America.