scholarly journals The oldest vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge (Bears Ears Region, southeastern Utah)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J Gay ◽  
Xavier A Jenkins ◽  
Taormina Lepore
Keyword(s):  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
River Channel ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Western Colorado ◽  
The Us ◽  
Indian Creek ◽  
Body Fossil ◽  
The Church

Vertebrate trace fossils are common in Upper Triassic deposits across the American southwest. These ichnofauna are dominated by Grallator, Brachychirotherium, and Pseudotetrasauropus, and lack ichnotaxa traditionally considered to be Early Jurassic in age, such as Eubrontes and Anomoepus. While known from Indian Creek and Lisbon Valley, Utah, vertebrate trace fossils have not been previously reported from Comb Ridge, Utah. This is significant considering that lithostratigraphic work has been ongoing at Comb Ridge since the 1990s in the elsewhere fossiliferous ‘Big Indian Rock Beds’, in the US Highway 163 roadcut that transects Comb Ridge. 2016 fieldwork by the Museums of Western Colorado: Dinosaur Journey recovered two sandstone slabs that had been dislodged from a river channel sand in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation. The slabs preserve the first documented Triassic vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge: a single pes impression of the ichnogenus Grallator, and several manus and at least one pes impression of a small archosaur. We tentatively refer this second track set to the ichnogenus Brachychirotherium. Taken together, these specimens provide evidence for a more diverse vertebrate fauna in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation at Comb Ridge than indicated by the current body fossil record.

scholarly journals The oldest vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge (Bears Ears Region, southeastern Utah)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J Gay ◽  
Xavier A Jenkins ◽  
Taormina Lepore
Keyword(s):  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
River Channel ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Western Colorado ◽  
The Us ◽  
Indian Creek ◽  
Body Fossil ◽  
The Church

Vertebrate trace fossils are common in Upper Triassic deposits across the American southwest. These ichnofauna are dominated by Grallator, Brachychirotherium, and Pseudotetrasauropus, and lack ichnotaxa traditionally considered to be Early Jurassic in age, such as Eubrontes and Anomoepus. While known from Indian Creek and Lisbon Valley, Utah, vertebrate trace fossils have not been previously reported from Comb Ridge, Utah. This is significant considering that lithostratigraphic work has been ongoing at Comb Ridge since the 1990s in the elsewhere fossiliferous ‘Big Indian Rock Beds’, in the US Highway 163 roadcut that transects Comb Ridge. 2016 fieldwork by the Museums of Western Colorado: Dinosaur Journey recovered two sandstone slabs that had been dislodged from a river channel sand in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation. The slabs preserve the first documented Triassic vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge: a single pes impression of the ichnogenus Grallator, and several manus and at least one pes impression of a small archosaur. We tentatively refer this second track set to the ichnogenus Brachychirotherium. Taken together, these specimens provide evidence for a more diverse vertebrate fauna in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation at Comb Ridge than indicated by the current body fossil record.

scholarly journals The oldest vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge (Bears Ears Region, southeastern Utah)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J Gay ◽  
Xavier A Jenkins ◽  
Taormina Lepore
Keyword(s):  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
River Channel ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
The Body ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Western Colorado ◽  
The Us ◽  
Body Fossil ◽  
The Church

Vertebrate trace fossils are common in Upper Triassic deposits across the American southwest. These ichnofauna are dominated by Grallator, Brachycheirotherium, and Pseudotetrasauropus and lack ichnotaxa traditionally considered to be Early Jurassic in age, such as Eubrontes and Anomoepus. While known from Indian Creek and Lisbon Valley, vertebrate trace fossils have not been previously reported from Comb Ridge. This is despite lithostratigraphic work having been conducted at the elsewhere-fossiliferous “Big Indian Rock Beds” at the US Highway 163 roadcut since the 1990s. 2016 fieldwork by the Museums of Western Colorado: Dinosaur Journey recovered two sandstone slabs that had been dislodged from a river channel sand in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation. The slabs preserve the first documented vertebrate trace fossils from Comb Ridge: a single pes impression of the ichnogenus Grallator, and several manus and at least one pes impression of a small archosaur. We tentatively refer this second track set to the ichnogenus Brachychierotherium. Taken together, these specimens provide evidence for a more diverse vertebrate fauna in the Church Rock Member of the Chinle Formation at Comb Ridge than indicated by the body fossil record.

scholarly journals A new non-mammalian eucynodont from the Chinle Formation (Triassic: Norian), and implications for the early Mesozoic equatorial cynodont record

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 20200631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben T. Kligman ◽  
Adam D. Marsh ◽  
Hans-Dieter Sues ◽  
Christian A. Sidor
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
North America ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Biogeographic Pattern ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Sampling Biases ◽  
Shed Light

The Upper Triassic tetrapod fossil record of North America features a pronounced discrepancy between the assemblages of present-day Virginia and North Carolina relative to those of the American Southwest. While both are typified by large-bodied archosaurian reptiles like phytosaurs and aetosaurs, the latter notably lacks substantial representation of mammal relatives, including cynodonts. Recently collected non-mammalian eucynodontian jaws from the middle Norian Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation in northeastern Arizona shed light on the Triassic cynodont record from western equatorial Pangaea. Importantly, they reveal new biogeographic connections to eastern equatorial Pangaea as well as southern portions of the supercontinent. This discovery indicates that the faunal dissimilarity previously recognized between the western and eastern portions of equatorial Pangaea is overstated and possibly reflects longstanding sampling biases, rather than a true biogeographic pattern.

scholarly journals First unambiguous dinosaur specimen from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in Utah

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier A. Jenkins ◽  
John R. Foster ◽  
Robert J. Gay
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
American West ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
The State ◽  
Previous Systematic Review ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Body Fossil ◽  
Range Of Variation ◽  
Coelophysis Bauri

Triassic dinosaurs represent relatively rare but important components of terrestrial faunas across Pangea. Whereas this record has been well studied at various locales across the American West, there has been no previous systematic review of Triassic material assigned to Dinosauria from Utah. Here, we critically examine the published body fossil and footprint record of Triassic dinosaurs from Utah and revise their record from the state. In addition, we describe a sacrum from a locality within the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of southeastern Utah. _is specimen represents the only unambiguous Triassic dinosaur body fossil from Utah. MWC 5627 falls within the range of variation known for sacrum morphology from Coelophysis bauri. Based on a literature review and examination of specimens available to us, we restrict the Triassic Utah dinosaurian record to _eropoda from the Chinle Formation. Preliminary reports of Triassic dinosaurs from other clades and formations in Utah are unsubstantiated.

First unambiguous dinosaur specimen from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in Utah

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Jenkins ◽  
John Foster ◽  
Robert Gay
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
American West ◽  
Upper Triassic ◽  
The State ◽  
Previous Systematic Review ◽  
Chinle Formation ◽  
Body Fossil ◽  
Range Of Variation ◽  
Coelophysis Bauri

Triassic dinosaurs represent relatively rare but important components of terrestrial faunas across Pangea. Whereas this record has been well studied at various locales across the American West, there has been no previous systematic review of Triassic material assigned to Dinosauria from Utah. Here, we critically examine the published body fossil and footprint record of Triassic dinosaurs from Utah and revise their record from the state. In addition, we describe a sacrum from a locality within the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of southeastern Utah. _is specimen represents the only unambiguous Triassic dinosaur body fossil from Utah. MWC 5627 falls within the range of variation known for sacrum morphology from Coelophysis bauri. Based on a literature review and examination of specimens available to us, we restrict the Triassic Utah dinosaurian record to _eropoda from the Chinle Formation. Preliminary reports of Triassic dinosaurs from other clades and formations in Utah are unsubstantiated.

scholarly journals Pleistocene golden mole and sand-swimming trace fossils from the Cape coast of South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Martin G. Lockley ◽  
Charles W. Helm ◽  
Hayley C. Cawthra ◽  
Jan C. De Vynck ◽  
Michael R. Perrin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
South Coast ◽  
Environmental Reconstruction ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Southeast Coast ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Golden Mole ◽  
Body Fossil

Abstract More than 250 Pleistocene vertebrate trace fossil sites have been identified on the Cape south coast of South Africa in aeolianites and cemented foreshore deposits. These discoveries, representing the epifaunal tracks of animals that moved over these sand substrates, complement traditional body fossil studies, and contribute to palaeo-environmental reconstruction. Not described in detail until now, but also important faunal components, are the infaunal traces of animals that moved within these sandy substrates. Six golden mole burrow trace sites (Family Chrysochloridae) have been identified on the Cape south coast. In addition, three sites, including one on the Cape southeast coast, have been identified that show evidence of sand-swimming, probably by a golden mole with a means of locomotion similar to that of the extant Eremitalpa genus. Such traces have not been described in detail in the global ichnology record, and merit the erection of a new ichnogenus Natatorichnus, with two ichnospecies, N. subarenosa ichnosp. nov and N. sulcatus ichnosp. nov. Care is required in the identification of such traces, and the orientation of the trace fossil surface needs to be determined, to avoid confusion with hatchling turtle tracks. Substantial regional Pleistocene dune environments are inferred from these sand-swimming traces.

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