New dinosaur ichnotaxa from the Early Jurassic of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland

Abstract

The numerous ornithopod tracks discovered during the last four years, in the Holy Cross Mts., allow the identification of two new ichnospecies— Anomoepus pienkovskii ichnosp. nov. and Moyenisauropus karaszevskii ichnosp. nov. The moyenisauropodid structure indicates that the trackmakers may well have been hitherto unknown forms of the earliest iguanodontids. Newly discovered theropod footprints, Grallator (Grallator) zvierzi ichnosp. nov. and Grallator (Eubrontes) soltykovensis ichnosp. nov., supplement knowledge of the Early Jurassic terrestrial fauna of Poland. The majority of the tracks occurring in the Gliniany Las exposure (Upper Hettangian) were left by dinosaurs which occupied the margins of a lagoonal environment. The other footprints, discovered in the Sołtyków (Lower Hettangian) outcrop, were left by carnosaurs walking across the fluvial plain.