Search

The Bemaraha Formation preserves a unique and abundant record of dinosaur footprints, the only occurrence of this type known from Madagascar. Theropod and sauropod tracks occur in Middle Jurassic strata and form an important record from this otherwise poorly documented time interval. Here we report on 18 new tracksites, raising the total number of known localities in the Bemaraha to 31. The majority of these sites occur at the same stratigraphic level that can be traced over an area of at least 30 km 2 , which makes it one of the most laterally extensive occurrences of dinosaur tracks on record in the Southern Hemisphere. Dinosaur tracks are restricted to a few bedding surfaces representing times of sea-level lowstand within a normally marine environment. Theropod tracks are by far more abundant than sauropod tracks and typically are orientated towards the palaeocoastline. This pattern is interpreted as evidence of a short-scale migration between feeding and resting grounds. The Bemaraha Formation thus allows a rare glimpse into dinosaur behaviour in a marginal-marine environment of Jurassic age.

About a hundred dinosaur tracks, mostly preserved as isolated footprints, have been recorded at a single site within the borders of the Waterberg National Park, Otjozondjupa Region, north-central Namibia. They are found in an interdune setting within the Lower Jurassic Etjo Formation and represent medium-sized theropods with slender digits and high projection of digit three. From an ichnotaxonomic point of view, the Namibian tracks are intermediate in morphology between Grallator (which is known to occur at other localities within the same Etjo Formation) and Anchisauripus, being otherwise in a size range that is usually considered typical for the latter ichnotaxon or even for Eubrontes. The Waterberg tracks do not match the allometric growth model proposed by Olsen et al. (1998) for the Early Jurassic theropod track assemblage of the North American Connecticut Valley, and they highlight the difficulties of consistently discriminating between theropod ichnotaxa in the Grallator-Anchisauripus-Eubro...

A trackway of 22 footprints is the first definite evidence of vertebrate life from the Main Aeolian Unit of the Twyfelfontein Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Kunene region, Northwestern Namibia. Footprints were left on the lee slope of an ancient dune in a hyper-arid, erg-dominated paleo environment. The new material is reminiscent of the Mesozoic ichnotaxon Brasilichnium, which is exclusively found on the slip face of sand dunes, from both South and North America. The Twyfelfontein Formation is considered a lateral equivalent of the Brazilian Botucatu Formation in which Brasilichnium is a common trace fossil, but correlation was formerly based exclusively on sedimentologic and lithostratigraphic homologies. Aside from being the first vertebrate evidence from the Cretaceous of Namibia, and possibly the first African Brasilichnium, this new find enforces the correlation between the Botucatu and the Twyfelfontein formations.

Dinosaur and crocodylomorph tracks are reported from a new Middle Jurassic tracksite in Central Iran. Crocodylomorphs are represented by a single, well-preserved trackway referred to as Crocodylopodus isp., whereas dinosaur tracks belong to two different types referred to as Wildeichnus isp. and cf. Anchisauripus. This is the first report of crocodilian tracks from the Middle East, and one of the few from Asia. Furthermore, the presence of Wildeichnus in the Middle Jurassic of Iran is interesting because this ichnogenus has previously been reported from localities of roughly the same age in North and South America, as well as Europe and Northern Africa, and may thus be of global significance.

The first incontrovertible Otozoum moodii of Gondwana is described from the Etjo Formation (Waterberg Plateau, Namibia). Distinct Otozoum trackways and isolated footprints are reported from the Omuramba Omambonde tracksite, in the Otjozondjupa Region (North–central Namibia). Previously known only from North America, Europe and possibly Lesotho, the occurrence of Otozoum is a definitive time constraint for an Early Jurassic age of the Etjo Formation. The presence of Otozoum in the hyperarid facies and specifically in interdune setting of the Etjo Formation is in accordance with previous claims of environmental selectivity for this ichnomorph.

New dinosaur tracksites are described from the Bajocian–Bathonian Bemaraha Formation of western Madagascar. Two track-bearing surfaces can be followed over a distance of at least 4 km, suggesting the existence of a hitherto unrecognized megatracksite. The track assemblage is theropod dominated, but sauropod tracks also occur at one site. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the abundant theropod track material suggests that most, if not all, theropod footprints are attributable to a single trackmaker and are referred to Kayentapus isp. Although this ichnogenus, originally described from the Lower Jurassic of North America, has never been recorded from Gondwana nor from the Middle Jurassic, track morphology strongly suggests this attribution. Palaeogeographical, sedimentological and ichnological data suggest that the dinosaur tracks formed in an intertidal to supratidal setting where the coastline influenced the preferred walking direction of the animals.

Here we report the first record of tetrapod tracks from Madagascar. We document two localities yielding dinosaur footprints, both within the Middle Jurassic Bemaraha Formation (Morondava Basin) in western Madagascar. The Sahalaly River tracksite yielded a single trackway belonging to a quadrupedal dinosaur; probably a sauropod, but a closer determination is hindered by bad preservation. In contrast, the Tsiandro tracksite yielded numerous well-preserved theropod tracks that allow some inference about the behavior of the trackmakers.

Three loose blocks, rich in dinosaur footprints, were found in a small pier at Mattinata (Gargano Promontory, Foggia, Italy), most probably quarried from the Upper Jurassic Sannicandro Formation. All of the footprints in the blocks are ascribed to medium-sized theropod trackmakers. Recent track discoveries from both the Early Cretaceous San Giovanni Rotondo Limestone and the Late Cretaceous Altamura Limestone, as well as this new discovery, reveal the consistency of terrestrial associations along the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean in the peri-Mediterranean area at the end of Jurassic through Cretaceous times. The presence of these dinosaur-track-rich levels within marine sediments of the Apulia Platform underlines the relevance of dinosaur footprints as a means of constraining paleogeographic reconstructions.