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Chirothere Footprint Sites from Middle Triassic of Devon, England



Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

A new paper:


Robert A. Coram & Jonathan D. Radley (2015)
Chirothere Footprint Sites from the Otter Sandstone Formation (Middle
Triassic, late Anisian) of Devon, United Kingdom.
Ichnos 22(1):   29-42
DOI:10.1080/10420940.2014.988789
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10420940.2014.988789#abstract

Three chirothere footprint sites are documented from the Middle
Triassic (Anisian) fluvial Otter Sandstone Formation of Sidmouth,
Devon, UK. One site, on the foreshore below Peak Hill, has revealed
numerous tracks, including a probable manus imprint, which are
recorded here. Another site, also beneath Peak Hill, has produced a
single probable manus track from a higher horizon. The third site, on
the foreshore below Salcombe Hill Cliff, has yielded a small number of
pes tracks similar to those from Peak Hill. The footprints at all
sites are interpreted as belonging to a large Chirotherium
ichnospecies, perhaps C. barthii Kaup. Unusually, the tracks are
preserved in mudstone, often in convex epirelief, and are inferred to
have been generated subaqueously. The apparent restriction of the
footprints to the higher part of the Otter Sandstone Formation
supports other evidence, such as a greater abundance of vertebrate
skeletal material, subhorizontal rather than vertical rhizocretions,
and a greater frequency of lacustrine facies, for a less arid climate
and higher water table than lower in the sequence.