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Theropod trackway from Jurassic of China + Tetrapod tracks from Permian of Spain
Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com
New online papers:
Li-Da Xing, Guang-Zhao Peng, Yong Ye, Martin G. Lockley, Richard T.
McCrea, Philip J. Currie, Jian-Ping Zhang & Michael E. Burns (2014)
Large theropod trackway from the Lower Jurassic Zhenzhuchong Formation
of Weiyuan County, Sichuan Province, China: Review, new observations
and special preservation.
Palaeoworld (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1016/j.palwor.2014.10.010
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871174X14000456
The well-preserved theropod track Weiyuanpus zigongensis, recently
assigned to Eubrontes zigongensis, was not described in exhaustive
detail at the time of its original discovery in 2007. Among the
morphological details not described was an antero-medially directed
hallux seen in five of the six tracks that make up the type trackway.
Hallux traces are only rarely reported in large Lower Jurassic
theropod tracks such as Eubrontes and Gigandipus, and their presence
or absence may be the result of one or both of two factors: track
depth and/or differences in hallux configuration in the trackmakers.
Here we argue that E. zigongensis is one of the best preserved
examples of a eubrontid track, which can be morphologically
distinguished from other Eubrontes ichnospecies by the presence of
well-defined hallux traces.
===
Sebastian Voigt & Hartmut Haubold (2014)
Permian Tetrapod Footprints From The Spanish Pyrenees.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.10.038
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018214005549
Highlights
First description of a diverse Permian tetrapod ichnofauna from Spain.
Tracks of temnospondyls, captorhinomorphs, and early diapsids.
Predominance of footprints of various non-diapsid eureptiles.
Inferred late Early Permian (Artinskian) vertebrate ichnoassemblage.
Abstract
Paleozoic tetrapod footprints are a common and well-known phenomenon
in almost all large European countries except for Spain. Here we
report on hitherto unpublished vertebrate tracks from Permian red-beds
of the south-central Pyrenees that with regard to their relative
abundance, diversity and quality of preservation are suitable to fill
this gap of knowledge. The described tracks come from two localities
in muddy to fine-grained, sandy, alluvial plain deposits in the lower
third of the Peranera Formation of the Erill-Castell Basin near Les
Iglésies, northern Catalonia. The tracks can be assigned to five
ichnogenera, i.e., Batrachichnus Woodworth, 1900, Limnopus Marsh,
1894, Varanopus Moodie, 1929, Hyloidichnus Gilmore, 1927, and Dromopus
Marsh, 1894, that we interpret as footprints of temnospondyls,
captorhinomorphs, and araeoscelids or similarly sized sauropsids with
a lacertoid foot pattern. This ichnofossil assemblage is most similar
to ichnofaunas from the Hermit Formation of the Grand Canyon, Arizona,
the upper Abo and Robledo Mountains formations of New Mexico, and the
main trace fossil site of the Tiddas Basin, Morocco, suggesting a late
Early Permian (Artinskian) age for this stratigraphic level of the
Peranera Formation. Considering the relative abundance and diversity
of captorhinomorph footprints, the new Spanish tracefossil localities
may cover the onset of the Early Permian radiation of non-diapsid
eureptiles. The thick Late Paleozoic red-bed successions of the
south-central Pyrenees have the potential to also bear footprints of
otherwise unknown early therapsids, so systematic fossil prospecting
of this area is strongly recommended.