First record of stegosaur dinosaur tracks in the Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian) of Europe (Oncala group, Soria, Spain)

Abstract

This paper describes for the first time a stegosaur track from the Cretaceous of Europe. It focuses on a cast that preserves pes-manus tracks recovered in the Huérteles Alloformation of the Berriasian of Soria (northern Spain). This track has been assigned to Deltapodus isp. on the basis of the pes morphology. Nonetheless, in the manus lacks the claw-shaped imprint of the pollex that characterizes Deltapodus brodricki Whyte & Romano, 1994, the type ichnospecies of the ichnogenus Deltapodus Whyte & Romano, 1994. The stegosaurs were abundant and diverse in the Late Jurassic of the Iberian Peninsula, as evidenced by their ichnological and osseous record. The presence of Deltapodus isp. provides further support for the view that the stegosaurs did not disappear in the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary crisis and kept going on the Iberian Peninsula for at least for the initial part of the Early Cretaceous.