Tetrapod Footprints Research Articles

Middle Pennsylvanian Ichnofauna from Eastern Oklahoma, USA

The Keota site, in the Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Keota Sandstone Member, McAlester Formation (Krebs Group) of Haskell County, Oklahoma, yields an extensive ichnofossil assemblage of arthropod trackways, insect resting traces, arthropod feeding and grazing traces, fish swimming traces, and tetrapod footprints. This ichnofossil assemblage occurs in a 0.8 to 1.5-m-thick unit of thinly laminated and ripple-laminated sandstone at the base of the Keota Sandstone Member that is interpreted as a tidal flat sandstone. The arthropod traces are assigned to the ichnotaxa Diplichnites gouldi Gevers types A and B, Diplopodichnus biformis Brady, Paleohelcura tridactyla Gilmore, Tonganoxichnus buildexensis Mángano, Buatois, Maples and Lanier, Gordia marina Emmons, cf. Cochlichnus sp. and Treptichnus bifurcus Miller. The fish swimming traces are assigned to Undichna britannica Higgs, and the tetrapod tracks to Notalacerta ichnosp. and Pseudobradypus ichnosp. The Keota ichnofossil assemblage thus documents the first North American Pennsylvanian record of Paleohelcura tridactyla and the first record of Pseudobradypus from the western United States. This ichnofossil assemblage also provides compelling evidence of a freshwater habitat in a tidal flat setting during deposition of the fossil-bearing sandstone at the Keota site. Indeed, the Keota ichnofossil assemblage is characteristic of a Carboniferous-Permian Tonganoxichnus assemblage that identifies nonmarine tidal flat settings.

Large Pelycosaur Footprints from the Lower Pennsylvanian of Alabama, USA

Relatively large tetrapod footprints from Lower Pennsylvanian strata of the Pottsville Formation in the Warrior basin coal field of Alabama were previously assigned to the ichnogenus Attenosaurus. However, three morphotypes are present, and we assign these tracks to Attenosaurus, a new ichnogenus (Alabamasauripus) and Dimetropus. Most of these tracks apparently were made by large pelycosaurs, for which there is no bone record older than Late Pennsylvanian.

A Triassic tetrapod footprint assemblage from southern South America: palaeobiogeographical and evolutionary implications

A new Triassic tetrapod track assemblage recorded from levels of the Cuyana Basin (west-central Argentina) is described. The tracks came from multiple track-bearing horizons of the Upper Triassic (Carnian) Portezuelo Formation that indicate recurrent playa to mudflat conditions in a marginal lacustrine succession. This footprint assemblage is the most important one described up to now for the lower Mesozoic of South America, and forms a significant estimate of the fauna represented during that time in the region. Therefore, in order to understand the faunal significance of the assemblage, the track-makers were identified within a phylogenetic context. Although at a coarse taxonomic level, this analysis indicates the presence of non-mammalian therapsids (small cynodonts and large dicynodonts) and a quite diverse archosaur fauna that includes members of both crurotarsal archosaurs and dinosaurs (sauropodomorphs and theropods). Comparisons between the studied assemblage and other Early Mesozoic tetrapod track records from Gondwana suggest close relationships with those described from the Upper Triassic of the Karoo Basin in South Africa. In addition, the presence of putative basal sauropodomorph dinosaur tracks in the Portezuelo levels suggests that the stratigraphic range of the group extends back into the Carnian, farther than that documented by the known body-fossil record of the group in western Gondwana.

Non-marine biota from the Lower Permian of the central Southern Alps (Orobic and Collio basins, N Italy): a key to the paleoenvironment

The Lower Permian in the central Southern Alps yields an important low-diversity fossil assemblage which was deposited in a varied continental setting, showing mainly alluvial fan to lacustrine and, locally, playa-like floodplain environments. The present study is not taxonomical and its objective is to make a first report of new invertebrate organisms and trackways discovered in the Orobic and Collio basins. Such a fossil record, which comprises freshwater jellyfishes, arthropod tracks, stromatolites, algae and other organisms, will further our knowledge about the local and regional geological history of the central-western Southern Alps and improve our understanding of Early Permian palaeoenvironments. On the whole, in both intramontane basins the ichnodiversity and fossil content decreases from a stratigraphic lower portion, mainly lacustrine and alluvial, towards an upper one, characterised by coarse alluvial deposits to floodplain fines. On the basis of both the already known palaeontological data from the two basins, mainly macroflora and tetrapod footprint associations, and the recently discovered taxa, we tried to make reliable palaeoenvironmental inferences and, possibly, hypothesise on a climatic change, which could have occurred during the Early Permian.

Tetrapod footprints of the lower permian choza formation at Castle Peak, Texas

The tetrapod track ichnofauna of the Lower Permian Choza Formation at Castle Peak, Texas, consists after augmentation of sample size and revision of three distinet ichnotaxa:Erpetopus willistoniMoodie, 1929,Varanopus curvidaetylusMoodie, 1929 andDromopus palmatus (Moodie, 1929). These are the tracks of protorothyridis, captorhinomorphs and araeoscelids, respectively. Castle Peak is the type locality of the ichnogeneraErpetopus andVaranopus. With the tetrapod ichnofauna of the Robledo Mountains Formation in New Mexico, the Castle Peak ichnofauna is the second Lower Permian track oecurrence that can be clearly correlated to the marine timescale. Both tetrapod ichnofaunas support assigning an age up to Artinskian to most Lower Permian red-bed tetrapod ichnofaunas of the North American Wolfcampian-Leonardian and the European Rotliegendes. The ichnogeneraBatrachichnus, Limnopus, Amphisauropus, Erpetopus, Varanopus, Dromopus andDimetropus characterize an Artinskian red-bed ichnofauna of Euramerican distribution.

China: Panzhihua/Pangang — nanoparticulate TiO 2

Trackways of archosaurs have recently been discovered in sandstones of the Upper Triassic (Norian–Rhaetian) Baoding Formation of Panzhihua City in southern Sichuan Province, China. Based on their overall-morphology, pes imprints are of characteristic chirotheriid shape showing a compact and symmetrical anterior group of digit traces II–IV with the trace of digit III being the longest, and a posterolaterally positioned, long and slender trace of digit V. Imprints of digit I and the manus are not preserved. This could be related to substrate conditions and the relatively shallow impressions, even if peculiarities in the gait such as overstep of the manus by the pes or bipedal movement cannot completely be excluded. Ichnotaxonomically, the imprints are assigned tentatively to cf. Chirotherium. There are some similarities with the type ichnospecies C. barthii from the Middle Triassic that has a global distribution and that was described also from the Guanling Formation (Middle Triassic) of adjacent Guizhou Province. However, the long and slender digit V that lacks a distinct large oval basal pad, the relatively short stride/step length, the low pace angulation, and the slight inward rotation of the imprints toward the midline are different. The peculiar shape of digit V and the lack of digit I in all imprints also preclude an assignment to the common Late Triassic ichnogenus Brachychirotherium or similar ichnotaxa such as Pseudotetrasauropus. An isolated tridactyl footprint on the same surface is different in shape from the chirotheriid ones by the stronger mesaxony and narrower digit divarication. It is considered here as a possible large grallatorid. This is the first occurrence of tetrapod footprints in the Baoding Formation of Sichuan Province and the second record of chirotheriids in the Triassic of China. The Baoding Formation has also yielded a characteristic Upper Triassic flora with cycads, filicopsids, gingkos, and conifers as well as bivalve fossils. The depositional environment can be designated as fluvial-lacustrine with occasional opening to marine areas. Considering biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic aspects, the late occurrence of chirotheriids cf. Chirotherium in China supports the view that basal crown-group archosaurs with a distinct tendency toward a functionally tridactyl pes developed and dispersed in parallel to typical tridactyl dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Footprints from the Lower Cretaceous Sarten Member of the Mojado Formation at Cerro de Cristo Rey, Dona Ana County, New Mexico

Dinosaur tracks and swimming traces have been discovered at three localities in the latest Albian Sarten Member of the Mojado Formation, Bisbee Group (= “Anapra Sandstone”), at Cerro de Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, southernmost Dona Ana County, New Mexico. These localities preserve footprints of ornithopod (Caririchnium) and theropod (Magnoavipes) dinosaurs, ?reptilian swimming traces and possible tracks of an ankylosaurian dinosaur. The Sarten Member is of the latest Albian age, so the Cerro de Cristo Rey tracks are slightly younger than the well-known late Albian tracksites of northeastern New Mexico. At Cerro de Cristo Rey, the dominance of ornithopod tracks and absence of sauropod tracks fit regional patterns of late Albian-early Cenomanian track distribution consistent with North American extirpation of sauropods before the end of Albian time. The deltaic/coastal plain depositional setting of the Sarten Member is also remarkably similar to the track-bearing late Albian-Cenomanian sandstones of NE New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and SE Colorado, which also have a tetrapod footprint ichnofacies dominated by ornithopod (Caririchnium) and theropod (Magnoavipes) tracks throughout the so-called “dinosaur freeway.”

Ascent of dinosaurs linked to an iridium anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

Analysis of tetrapod footprints and skeletal material from more than 70 localities in eastern North America shows that large theropod dinosaurs appeared less than 10,000 years after the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and less than 30,000 years after the last Triassic taxa, synchronous with a terrestrial mass extinction. This extraordinary turnover is associated with an iridium anomaly (up to 285 parts per trillion, with an average maximum of 141 parts per trillion) and a fern spore spike, suggesting that a bolide impact was the cause. Eastern North American dinosaurian diversity reached a stable maximum less than 100,000 years after the boundary, marking the establishment of dinosaur-dominated communities that prevailed for the next 135 million years.

Permian tetrapod footprintsfrom W Orobic Basin (Northern Italy). Biochronological and evolutionary remarks

Abstract Numerous tetrapod footprints have been found in the Permian deposits of the Western Orobic Prealps(Upper Gerola Valley, Sondrio and Lecco Provinces, Lombardy, Italy). The footprints come from the uppermost levels of the Collio Fm. and are ascribed to Amphisauropus latus Haubold 1970, A. imminutus Haubold 1970, Dromopus lacertoides ( Geinitz 1861) and Varanopus curvidactylus Moodie 1929. The association is closely comparable to the association known from the lower portion of the Collio Fm. cropping out within the Collio Basin, in the Brescia region and to the similar and coeval Early Permian associations of Central Europe and North America.

Giuseppe Leonardi: Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an Appendix on Mexico and Central America

Giuseppe Leonardi: Annotated Atlas of South America Tetrapod Footprints (Devonian to Holocene) with an Appendix on Mexico and Central America

Trace fossils from interdune deposits—an example from the lower triassic aeolian Tumlin Sandstone, central Poland

The Tumlin Sandstone, up to 105 m thick, is the deposit of a midcontinent, extensive (at least 1500 km 2) dune field. It consists of dune deposits and of subordinate intercalations of interdune deposits. The latter are represented by horizontally bedded sandstone accumulated in frequently changing conditions: on dry, damp, and wet surface. Dry-surface deposits predominate. Subordinate but relatively common are damp-surface deposits with characteristic adhesion structures, and wet-surface deposits represented by very thin mudstone layers and horizons of wave ripples, which originated in ephemeral ponds. The interdune deposits contain numerous trace fossils whose occurrence is almost entirely connected with wet-surface and damp-surface deposits. The dune deposits are devoid of trace fossils. The following forms have been recognized: ?Arenicolites isp., Cruziana problematica, Diplocraterion isp., Gordia marina, Planolites montanus, Planolites isp., Palaeophycus ?tubularis, tetrapod footprints, radial structures, shallow double furrows, and various oval depressions. In places, intensive but shallow bioturbation of sediment is observable. The trace fossil assemblage is similar to the Scoyenia ichnofacies but lacks Scoyenia and Ancorichnus. The assemblage is more comparable to the mixed Arenicolites-Cruziana ichnofacies sensu Bromley and Asgaard (1979). The invertebrate burrows show an r- selected strategy in sediment colonization. Around the Palaeozoic/Mesozoic transition the highly diversified ichnofauna compared to that of the Permian interdune deposits shows increased colonisation of interdunes by an invertebrate, mainly arthropod, fauna.

A Carboniferous reptile footprint from the Somerset Coalfield

An isolated footprint from the Somerset Coalfield is identified as having been made by a pelycosaur, a Palaeozoic mammal-like reptile. It is both the first report of a pelycosaur and the first tetrapod footprint recorded from the British Westphalian.

La palichnofaune des bassins permiens provençaux

Statistical and morphological comparisons between the ichnofauna of the Provençal Permian and the one of the Lodève basin allow the conclusion of the existence, of similar associations. The paleontological study of tetrapod tracks demonstrates the existence of Eosuchians, Captorhinomorphs, Procolophonids and Pelycosaurs and may be of some therapsids living in flood plain environments, lakes or marshes. Small Temnospondyls and Eryopsids appear to be locally abundant. Invertebrate ichnofauna is of consequence and incluses 17 ichnogenera, including a new one Dendroidichnites, and two new ichnospecies. These trails suggest remarkable fauna of Arthropods, Worms, Gastropods living in shallow (fresh?) waters and/or at their border. According to the age attributed to the Val Gardena Tetrapod Footprint Association (Italy) by reference to the french and german palichnostratigraphic scales, the age Upper Kazanian or basal Tatarian is proposed for the fossiliferous layers of the Pelitic Formation of the Luc basin (Provence). Considering 1) the first vertical appearance in the european Permian, of Hyloidichnus major and Hyloidichnus (Varanopus) microdactylus, and 2) the datings yielded by palynology, then, the Pradineaux Formation would be of lower Kazarian age or Koungourian. May be, the red supraconglomeratic Permian basement of the Lodeve and St Affrique basins (Rabejac, Boriette and Briols layers would have the same age.

Limnopus trackways from the Conemaugh Group (Late Pennsylvanian), southern West Virginia

Abundant and well-preserved tetrapod footprints have been discovered in the Glenshaw Formation (Lower Conemaugh Group) in Wayne County, West Virginia. The tracks occur along at least three horizons within a 30-cm-thick stratigraphic interval about 15 m (50 ft) above the Brush Creek Limestone; they are of Missourian age. The tracks are preserved mainly as casts on the underside of thin-bedded, ripple cross-laminated sandstones and less commonly as molds in intervening dark-gray shales. Associated body fossils include Spirorbis worm tubes and washed-in plant debris. Facies characteristics indicate the tracks were formed along the margins of an ephemeral lake in a flood basin setting adjacent to delta plain fluviodeltaic channel systems. Short-lived lacustrine conditions were likely to have resulted from a seasonal tropical to subtropical climate.Most of the tracks can be assigned to the ichnogenus Limnopus, making them one of the earliest known occurrences. At least five trackways are discernible with an external width ranging from 320 to 400 mm. Limnopus glenshawensis, a new ichnospecies, is herein proposed and various morphologic and locomotion parameters are quantified. Mean values include stride/manus, 407 mm; stride/pes, 411 mm; oblique pace/manus, 313 mm; oblique pace/pes, 317 mm; pace angle/manus, 82.4 degrees; pace angle/pes, 80.5 degrees; glenoacetabular distance, 329 mm; manus length, 87.2 mm; manus width, 104.2 mm; pes length, 121.4 mm; pes width, 112.7 mm. The tracemaker was most likely an eryopoid amphibian with a total length of slightly over 1 m.

Trace fossils from the Westphalian D of Writhlington Geological Nature Reserve, nr. Radstock, Avon

Trace fossils, recently collected from a disused colliery tip, include xiphosurid arthropod trackways Kouphichnium , sinuous nematode worm burrows Cochlichnus , ostracod grazing trails, conchostracan resting traces, coprolites and a tetrapod footprint. This ichnofauna represents activity patterns of a diverse fauna in marginal muddy sediments of an ephemeral lake. Although this is a unique discovery in Britain, it has close similarities with late Silesian ichnofaunas of eastern Canada and Central France.

A revision of the triassic and jurassic tetrapod footprints of Argentina and a new approach on the age and meaning of the Botucatu Formation footprints (Brazil)

A description and a revision of the Triassic (Las Higueras Ischigualasto, Quebrada Los Rastros, Rio Los Tarros-Sur Pagancillo and Los Menucos) and Jurassic (Estância Laguna Manantiales) tetrapod ichnofaunas of Argentina and of the Botucatu Formation at Araraquara (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are given. The structures of these ichno-associations are compared. The Triassic Argentinean ichnofaunas present therapsids and archosaurians, specially quadrupedal thecodonts. Mammals are very rare. In the Jurassic (Oxfordian) ichnofauna of Estância Laguna Manantiales, mammals, accompanied by four dinosaurian forms, predominate. There are not obviously either therapsids nor quadrupedal thecodonts. The Botucatu Formation, whose age was up to now uncertain and is herein discussed, presents at Araraquara a rich ichnofauna. This includes many mammals, a few biopedal dinosaurs and some theromorphoid footprints, tentatively attributed to Tritylodontoidea. The Botucatu Formation, at least in the outcrops of the State of Sao Paulo and particularly in the Araraquara area, might be put into a period of time between the Rhaetian and Middle Jurassic, with a greater probability for Lower Jurassic or the lowest section of the Middle Jurassic.

Heterochrony and the origin of tetrapods

Long, J. A. 1990 04 15: Heterochrony and the origin of tetrapods. Lethaia, Vol. 23, pp. 157–166. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164. Juveniles of the osteolepifonn fish Eusthenopteron show more features in common with primitive tetrapods than any other crossopterygian group. These similarities indicate that paedomorphosis may have played an important role directing anagenesis of cranial characters in the fish-tetrapod transition. The development of the tetrapod limb, however, probably resulted from peramorphosis. The first tetrapods may have originated in the East Gondwana vertebrate Province early in the Devonian, based on the oldest known tetrapod footprints from Australia. Furthermore, the biogeographic distribution of plesiomorphic osteichthyans indicates that the monophyletic group ‘rhizodontiforms. osteolepiforms and tetrapods' most likely arose in east Gondwana.

Tetrapod trackways from Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan

Tetrapod footprints were found in the Cretaceous strata-formerly called “Nuba(n) Sandstone” -of SE-Egypt and NW-Sudan. The trackways are here for the first time described in detail and in connection with their relative depositional environments. As the preservation of these footprints is poor, generic or specific names were not given. The name of the ichnogenus that comes closest to fitting the shape has been noted for each print. With respect to their paleoecological and stratigraphical significance, investigations of tetrapod footprints were necessarily concentrated on the continental strata of Egypt and Sudan. More discoveries will be welcome.

Palaeoecology and palaeoenvironments of tetrapod footprints from the rotliegend (lower permian) of central Europe

In late Palaezoic red beds tetrapod footprints are, both in vertical and lateral extent, the most common fossils. They are at present most fully known from the European Rotliegend. An analysis of their occurrence in relation to lithology, sedimentology and fossil associations (including an interpretation of the prints themselves) shows them to be linked with fluviatile facies in the broadest sense. Of all thssils from the Rotliegend, footprints are the least affected by climatic circumtances or by palaeogeography. Nevertheless, as a consequence of palaeogeographic controls, two footprint communities may be distinguished; a cotylosaur-pelycosaur-temnospondyl community in restricted basins and a pelycosaur-cotylosaur community in broader depositional environments within the Variscan uplands - the molasse facies, piedmont valley-flat red beds. Representatives of the pelycosaur-cotylosaur community colonized wider areas until the latest Saxonian. Their facies relationship with the principal types ofred-bed sediments and the phylogenetic faunal changes they exhibit predestine the vertebrate footprints to serve as guide fossils for the Rotliegend. They afford the means for a precise stratigraphical definition of the Autunian and the Saxonian and for the correlation of the Lower and Upper Autunian of Europe with equivalent occurrences in North America, based on faunas which, as represented by footprints, are generically identical. The wide distribution of shallow fluviatile facies evidently corresponds with particular evolutionary stages in terrestrial amphibians and reptiles. Highland faunas, often exclusively represented by footprints, may be looked upon as starting points for evolutionary radiations of terrestrial vertebrates in the Carboniferous and Permian.

Studies for Students: The Development and Geological Relations of the Vertebrates

Previous articleNext article FreeStudies for StudentsStudies for Students: The Development and Geological Relations of the VertebratesE. C. CaseE. C. Case Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Geology Volume 6, Number 5Jul. - Aug., 1898 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/608153 Views: 101Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Bryan M. Gee, Yara Haridy, Robert R. Reisz Histological characterization of denticulate palatal plates in an Early Permian dissorophoid, PeerJ 5 (Aug 2017): e3727.https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3727Spencer G. Lucas Thinopus and a Critical Review of Devonian Tetrapod Footprints, Ichnos 22, no.3-43-4 (Sep 2015): 136–154.https://doi.org/10.1080/10420940.2015.1063491