Small Theropod Footprints from Early Jurassic of Massachusetts

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


A new paper:


Sebastian G. Dalman (2012)
New Data on Small Theropod Footprints from the Early Jurassic
(Hettangian) Hartford Basin of Massachusetts, United States.
Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 53(2):333-353
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3374/014.053.0201
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3374/014.053.0201?prevSearch=theropod&searchHistoryKey=&queryHash=16c859f8d9f2bb9ab0502ded7bdf9107

A Portland Formation Lower Jurassic (Hettangian) dinosaur tracksite in
Granby, Massachusetts, USA, has yielded a diverse dinosaur footprint
assemblage. The tracksite preserves 140 theropod dinosaur footprints,
ranging in length from 15 to 35 cm; the ichnofauna includes
Anchisauripus, Eubrontes, Grallator and other extremely small theropod
dinosaur footprints. The small tracks are compared with similar
ichnites from the Lower Jurassic of western North America and central
Poland. The small theropod footprints, which are described in detail,
show some resemblance to the poorly known ichnogenus Stenonyx (Lull,
1904), which is considered an invalid ichnotaxon by many other
workers. The footprints exhibit a distinct morphology of the
metatarsophalangeal area, suggesting that these small ichnites are
closely related to Kayentapus and Grallator. These small tracks are
the first reported from the Hartford Basin of Granby, Massachusetts.