Triassic dinosaur stuff

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler
bh480@scn.org

I won't spoil the big news today in Science magazine, but 
it's already in the media online in German and Spanish 
news sources. (Go to Google News and look 
for "dinosaurier" or "dinosaurio"...)

In the meantime, here's something about Triassic 
dinosaurs from Acta Palaeontologica Polonica:


Grzegorz Nied?wiedzki (2011)
A Late Triassic dinosaur-dominated ichnofauna from the 
Tomanová Formation of the Tatra Mountains, Central Europe.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica in press
available online 13 Jan 2011 
doi:10.4202/app.2010.0027
http://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app20100027.html

Osteological fossils of dinosaurs are relatively rare in 
the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. Thus, ichnofossils 
are a critical source of information on Late Triassic 
terrestrial vertebrate communities. The outcrops of the 
Tomanová Formation (?late Norian-Rhaetian) in the Tatra 
Mountains of Poland and Slovakia have yielded a diverse 
ichnofauna. Seven more or less distinct morphotypes of 
dinosaur tracks have been recognized and are discussed. 
Most tracks are partly eroded or deformed, but are 
preserved well enough to be assigned to a range of 
trackmakers, including early ornithischians, small and 
large theropods (coelophysoids and/or possibly early 
tetanurans), and probably basal sauropodomorphs 
(?prosauropods?) or first true sauropods.