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Posterolateral markings on dinosaur tracks, Cameron Dinosaur Tracksite, Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation, northeastern Arizona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Grace V. Irby
Grace V. Irby*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff 86001
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Abstract

Posterolateral markings, appearing as short, rectilinear grooves projecting from the posterior margins of digit IV, occur on tracks in five of 34 trackways at the Cameron Dinosaur Tracksite in the Dinosaur Canyon Member of the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation, northeastern Arizona. A new ichnospecies, Grallator (Anchisauripus) madseni, is described from these five trackways made by bipedal, tridactyl dinosaurs. The size and morphology of the tracks suggest that they may represent trackmakers similar to Coelophysis and Syntarsus, two dinosaurs described from Triassic and Jurassic deposits in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico.

Among the working hypotheses cited as possible causes of the posterolateral markings are: 1) they were made by the dragging of digit III or of the metatarsus; 2) they are marks produced by a feature similar to a horny excrescence or cornified ridge on digitometatarsal pad IV; and 3) they are related to a peculiarity that may have resulted from sexual dimorphism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , July 1995 , pp. 779 - 784
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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