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Dinosaur tracksite
A NEW ARCHOSAUR TRACKSITE FROM THE EARLY CRETACOUS OF SOUSA BASIN, NORTHEASTERN
BRAZIL
HEBERT BRUNO N. CAMPOS
At present, 24 dinosaur track localities have been discovered from the
Cretaceous
strata in the Rio do Peixe basin complex. The Sousa basin is one of the four
small
basins that composes the Rio do Peixe region. Here, a new archosaur tracksite
from
the Sousa Basin, Early Cretaceous (Berriasian?lower Barremian) of northeastern
Brazil is reported. The site (S 6º47?10?; W 38º5?00?) is located in the Piranhas
River bed, in the small village of Tapera, in the municipality of Aparecida,
west
of Paraíba State, approximately two kilometers from BR-230 road. The substrate
is a
light brown compact claystone and the tracks are well preserved. Several
dinosaur
and crocodilomorph tracks were observed at this site. Three distinct morphotypes
are present: (1) quadrupedal trackways with large rounded or sub-oval pes and
U-shaped manus prints assigned to sauropod dinosaurs; (2) bipedal trackways with
tridactyl, digitagrades and mesaxony footprints with claw marks, attributed to
medium-sized theropod dinosaurs; and (3) a well preserved crocodilomorph
trackway.
Tapera tracksite offers valuable paleobiological information due to its
expceptional preservation and ichnotype diversity. Morphometric and statiscal
data
will be published elsewhere.
Paleo 2004. p. 3.
Best,
Bruno