Eubrontes Hitchcock, 1845
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https://doi.org/ 10.4202/app.2010.0027 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0388AD1A-1D16-D213-3044-F921FDEFF9DA |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Eubrontes Hitchcock, 1845 |
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Ichnogenus Eubrontes Hitchcock, 1845
Type species: Eubrontes giganteus Hitchcock, 1845 ; Holyoke , Massachusetts, USA, Portland Formation, Lower Jurassic .
cf. Eubrontes isp.
Fig. 5 View Fig .
Description.—A single specimen of a Eubrontes −like footprint was found in Cicha Valley, Červený Ŭplaz, Slovakia (field observation). This specimen is partially eroded but its size (~ 45 cm long) and morphology support referral to Eubrontes . Eubrontes is the ichnogeneric name applied to relatively large (pes length greater than 25 cm) tridactyl tracks of bipedal dinosaurs ( Olsen et al. 1998). Digit III is usually relatively shorter than in Grallator and Anchisauripus , but essentially corresponds with grallatorid pattern and looks generally like a robust version of Anchisauripus . The angle between the digits II and III is 18 °, while the angle between the digits III and IV is 36 °.
Remarks.—A theropod dinosaur is widely−agreed to be the Eubrontes trackmaker ( Lockley and Hunt 1995; Olsen et al. 1998; Lockley and Meyer 2000) but some authors have suggested a sauropodomorph affinity for these tracks (e.g., Weems 2003). Since the 1980s, some workers have argued that the earliest occurrence of Eubrontes coincides with the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (see Olsen et al. 1998, 2002). However, other authors suggest that the earliest occurrence of Eubrontes does not coincide with the base of the Jurassic, as there are various well−documented Eubrontes records from the Late Triassic ( Gierliński and Ahlberg 1994; Lucas et al. 2006). New occurrences of Late Triassic Eubrontes − like tracks have been reported ( Lucas et al. 2006; Dzik et al. 2008), but it is outside the scope of this paper to discuss ichnotaxonomy, morphological variation and stratigraphic positions of those tracks. Preliminary observations, however, suggest that the Late Triassic record of large tridactyl tracks (with pes length greater than 25 cm) may represent rather two or even three different ichnomorphotypes and that the classical ichnospecies Eubrontes giganteus Hitchcock, 1845 is known only from the latest Rhaetian or in Rhaetian–Hettangian transitional beds ( Gierliński and Ahlberg 1994; Gierliński et al. 2001, 2004; Dzik et al. 2008).
Sauropodomorpha von Huene, 1932
? Sauropodomorpha indet.
Fig. 6 View Fig .
Description.—Two large (about 30–40 cm long), oval−shaped structures similar to earliest Jurassic sauropodomorph dinosaur tracks were found (see Gierliński et al. 2004) in both localities (Czerwone Żlebki, Poland and Červený Ŭplaz, Slovakia; field observations). Similar structures, but organized in a narrow−gauge trackway indicative of a large quadruped animal with strong heteropody (pes larger than manus), have been described from the Late Triassic of Europe, South Africa, and North America ( Eosauropus, Lockley et al. 2006 ).
Remarks.—In all described Late Triassic specimens, the pedal imprints are oval and elongate, tetradactyl to pentadactyl, and possess a long axis and distal claw impressions that are rotated outwards. These features are not clearly visible in the specimens from the Tatra Mountains. The Tatra Mountains specimens are also similar to the Early Jurassic sauropodomorph footrpint Parabrontopodus because both are large in size (Lockley et al. 2006).
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