Fossil track
A fossil track or ichnite (Greek "ιχνιον" (ichnion) – a track, trace or footstep) is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the years, many ichnites have been found, around the world, giving important clues about the behaviour (and foot structure and stride) of the animals that made them. For instance, multiple ichnites of a single species, close together, suggest 'herd' or 'pack' behaviour of that species.
Combinations of footprints of different species provide clues about the interactions of those species. Even a set of footprints of a single animal gives important clues, as to whether it was
Special conditions are required, in order to preserve a footprint made in soft ground (such as an alluvial plain or a formative sedimentary deposit). A possible scenario is a sea or lake shore that became dried out to a firm mud in hot, dry conditions, received the footprints (because it would only have been partially hardened and the animal would have been heavy) and then became silted over in a flash storm.
The first ichnite found was in 1800 in Massachusetts, US, by a farmer named Pliny Moody, who found 1-foot (31 cm) long fossilized footprints. They were thought by Harvard and Yale scholars to be from "Noah's Raven".[1]
A famous group of ichnites was found in a limestone quarry at Ardley, 20 km Northeast of Oxford, England, in 1997. They were thought to have been made by Megalosaurus and possibly Cetiosaurus. There are replicas of some of these footprints, set across the lawn of Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH).
A creature named
The largest known dinosaur footprints, belonging to sauropods and dating from the early Cretaceous were found to the north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia, with some footprints measuring 1.7 m.[2][3] The 3D digital documentation of tracks has the benefit of being able to examine ichnite in detail remotely and distribute the data to colleagues and other interested personnel.[4]
Fossil trackways
Many fossil trackways were made by
Some basic fossil trackway types:
- footprints
- tail drags
- belly drag marks – (e.g., tetrapods)[5]
- chain of trace platforms – (example: Yorgia)
- body imprint – (Monuron trackway, insect)
The majority of fossil trackways are foot impressions on land, or subsurface water, but other types of creatures will leave distinctive impressions. Examples of creatures supported, or partially supported, in a water environment are known. The fossil "millipede-type" genus Arthropleura left its multi-legged/feet trackways on land.
Hominid trackways
Africa
Tanzania
Some of the earliest trackways for human ancestors have been discovered in
South Africa
In South Africa, two ancient trackways have been found containing footprints, one at Langebaan and one at Nahoon. Both trackways occur in calcareous eolianites or hardened sand dunes. At Nahoon, trackways of at least five species of vertebrates, including three hominid footprints, are preserved as casts.[7] The prints at Langebaan are the oldest human footprints, dated to approximately 117,000 years old.[8]
Australia
New South Wales
Twenty six human fossil trackways have been found in the Willandra Lakes area adjacent to Lake Garnpung, consisting of 563 human footprints from 19,000 to 20,000 years ago.[9]
Early Tetrapod
The earliest land creatures (actually land-marine coastal-riverine-marshland) left some of the first terrestrial trackways. They range from tetrapods to proto-reptilians and others.
A possible first connection of a trackway with the vertebrate that left it was published by Drs. Sebastian Voigt and David Berman and Amy Henrici in the 12 September 2007 issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The paleontologists who made the connection were aided by unusually detailed trackways left in fine-grained Lower Permian mud of the Tambach Formation in central Germany, together with exceptionally complete fossilised skeletons in the same 290-million-year-old strata. They matched the two most common trackways with the two most common fossils, two reptile-like herbivores known as Diadectes absitus (with the trackway pseudonym Ichniotherium cottae) and Orobates pabsti (with the trackway pseudonym of Orobates pabsti).[10]
The Permo-Carboniferous of Prince Edward Island, Canada contains trackways of tetrapods and stem-reptiles.[11] Macrofloral and palynological information help date them.
Ireland hosts late Middle Devonian tetrapod trackways at three sites on Valentia Island within the Valentia Slate Formation.[12][13]
The earliest fossil trackway of primitive tetrapods in Australia occurs in the Genoa River Gorge, Victoria, dating from the Devonian 350 million years ago.[14]
Dinosaur trackways
Dinosaurs lived on the continents before
With scientific analysis, dinosaur specialists are now analyzing tracks for the walking-speeds, or sprint-running speeds for all categories of dinosaurs, even to the large plant eaters, but especially the faster 3-toed meat hunters. Evidence of herding, as well as pack hunting are also being investigated.
Brazil
- Valley of the Dinosaurs, Paraíba, Brazil
Africa
Namibia
In north-central Namibia there is a dinosaur trackway in sandstone on what is now the private farm
Zimbabwe
In the Lower Zimbabwe Rift Valley there is a trackway in 140 Ma rose-coloured
North America
The western regions of North America, especially the western border of the Western Interior Seaway, are common for dinosaur trackways. Wyoming has dinosaur trackways from the Late Cretaceous, 65 ma.[18] (A model example of this 3-toed Wyoming trackway was made for presentation)[19]
In the
Other examples include:
- Dinosaur tracks, near Moab, Utah[21]
- Dinosaur Footprints Reservation in Holyoke, Massachusetts, US
- Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, Wyoming
- Prehistoric Trackways National Monument near Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Connecticut River Valley trackways, in New England
- Clayton Lake State Park dinosaur trackway near Clayton, New Mexico
Asia
China
The Gansu dinosaur trackway located in the Liujiazia National Dinosaur Geopark in Yanguoxia, China contains hundreds of tracks including 245 dinosaur, 350 theropod, 364 sauropod and 628 ornithopod tracks among others.[22]
Thailand
The Phu Pha Man National Park in Thailand contains one of the oldest dinosaur tracks to have been discovered in Asia.[23] Discovered in January 2024, paleontologists from the Department of Mineral Resources have dated the tracks to around 225–220 million years old (the late Triassic period).[24] The track contains traces of a variety of dinosaurs including theropods, sauropods, and archosaurs.[25]
Australia
The Lark Quarry Trackway in Queensland contains three-toed tracks made by a heard of ornithopod dinosaurs crossing a river. It was once believed they respresented a large predator chasing doqn a mixed flock of small ornithopods and theropods, but this was contested in 2011.[26]
Portugal
Lagosteiros Natural Monument, in Sesimbra.
Mammal trackways
Mammal trackways are among the least common trackways. Mammals were not often in mud, or riverine environments; they were more often in forestlands or grasslands. Thus the earlier tetrapods or proto-tetrapods would yield the most fossil trackways. The Walchia forest of Brule, Nova Scotia has an example of an in situ Walchia forest, and tetrapod trackways that extended over some period of time through the forest area.
United States
- A 1.5km-long Late Pleistocene Age trackway of Human (child and adult) fossilized footprints, as well as giant ground sloth tracks have been found at White Sands National Park. Near Alamogordo, New Mexico[27][28]
Australia
A recent marsupial trackway site in the Colac district of Australia (west of Colac) contains marsupial trackways as well as kangaroo and wallaby tracks.[29]
Gallery of images
-
Cheirotherium trace fossil, displayed in Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
-
Cross-section ofThe Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, South Dakota.
-
Eubrontes, a dinosaur footprint in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, southwestern Utah.
-
Gigandipus, a dinosaur footprint in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, southwestern Utah.
-
Cameloid footprint (Lamaichnum alfi Sarjeant and Reynolds, 1999; convex hyporelief) from the Barstow Formation (Miocene) of Rainbow Basin, California.
-
Saurichnites intermedius
-
ALa Rioja, Spain
-
The main dinosaur trackway at the Lagosteiros Natural Monument, Portugal.
-
Moa footprints near the Manawatu River, New Zealand.
-
Hibbertopterus trackway: negative relief image, a groove infilled by sand appears as a ridgeline
See also
- Ichnites, a type of ichnite
- List of stratigraphic units with dinosaur tracks
- Formations with ichnites
- List of non-Dinosauria fossil trackway articles
- List of fossil sites
References
- ^ "Noahs Raven". Archived from the original on 2009-07-25. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
- ISSN 0272-4634.
- ISSN 0891-2963.
- ^ Stössel, I, Williams, E.A. & Higgs, K.T. 2016. Ichnology and depositional environment of the Middle Devonian Valentia Island tetrapod trackways, south-west Ireland. Palaeogeog., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 462, 16–40
- ^ a b "Laetoli Footprint Trails". The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. Retrieved 2022-08-29.
- ^ Last Interglacial Hominid and Associated Vertebrate Fossil Trackways in Coastal Eolianites, South Africa, 2008
- ^ South Africa West Coast article on Langebaan footprints
- S2CID 107464142.
- ^ Science Daily, "Who Went There? Matching Fossil Tracks With Their Makers", 15 September 2007.
- ^ Calder, J.H., Baird, D. & Urdang, E.B. 2004. On the discovery of tetrapod trackways from Permo-Carboniferous redbeds of Prince Edward Island and their biostratigraphic significance. Atlantic Geology, 40, 217–226. [1]
- ^ Stössel, I. 1995. The discovery of a new Devonian tetrapod trackway in SW Ireland. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 152, 407–413.
- ^ Stössel, I, Williams, E.A. & Higgs, K.T. 2016. Ichnology and depositional environment of the Middle Devonian Valentia Island tetrapod trackways, south-west Ireland. Palaeogeog., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 462, 16–40
- ^ Warren, J.W. & Wakefield, N.A., 1972. Trackways of tetrapod vertebrates from the Upper Devonian of Victoria, Aust. Nature 238, 469-470.
- OCLC 23176761.
- ^ "Guest Farm Namibia – Dinosaur Tracks-Footprints National Monument von Namibia". www.dinosaurstracks-guestfarm.com. Retrieved 2021-11-06.
- ^ "Walking with baby dinosaurs", manus and pes prints
- ^ Dinosaur Hunting in Wyoming, photo: Arlene and Gabe at the trackways. [2]
- ^ Dinosaur Hunting in Wyoming, photo: trackways for presentation.
- ^ a b c Martin Lockley & Adrian P. Hunt, Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of the Western United States, Columbia U. Press, New York (1995)
- ^ Area with 200-plus dinosaur tracks opening to public soon accessdate=2014-08-25
- S2CID 128491569.
- ^ "250 million year old dinosaur footprints discovered in thailand". Retrieved 2024-01-25.
- ^ "Dinosaur track find could be a first for Thailand". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
- ^ "Dinosaur footprints over 225 million years old discovered in Thailand". nationthailand. 2024-01-14. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
- ISSN 0195-6671.
- ^ "World's longest fossilized human trackways discovered at White Sands National Park". Las Cruces Sun News. 9 October 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- S2CID 225132473.
- ^ Unrivalled fossil find, The Cola Herald
External links
- Texts on natural casts of dinosaur tracks found in Utah coal mines
- The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
.
- Wyoming 3-toed trackways
- Zimbabwe juvenile dinosaur trackway
- Redbeds of Prince Edward Island, Permo-Carboniferous
Dinosaur trackways:
- Photo-High Res – (Outdoor photo); Article Photo from Dakota Formation, Colorado
Early Tetrapods:
Australia