Zanclonychopus Sarjeant & Langston, 1994

Abbassi, Nasrollah, Salehi Tinooni, Mohammad, Ghorbani Dehnavi, Mahdi, Shakeri, Safoora & Eshaghi, Ali, 2024, Oligocene vertebrate footprints from the Lower Red Formation, Central Iran, Fossil Record 27 (2), pp. 265-287 : 265-287

Ichnogenus Zanclonychopus Sarjeant & Langston, 1994

Type ichnospecies.

Zanclonychopus cinicalcator Sarjeant and Langston (1994) .

Diagnosis.

Plantigrade footprints, with manus and pes of similar size and with all digits strongly clawed. Digits II to IV most deeply impressed and forming, with palm or sole, an approximately oval shape (more marked in the pes); digit I set off to one side and impressed lightly or not at all. Tips and claws of inner digits curving outward, of outer digits curving inward. Inner phalangeal pads of pes fused; those of manus free.

Discussion.

Sarjeant and Langston (1994) considered Creodonta as the trackmaker for Zanclonychopus , and compared it with American black bear for large footprints. The modern bears have large metatarsal and short metacarpal imprints with one pedal digit and distinctive long claws imprints. Zanclonychopus have the same sizes in the metatarsal and metacarpal imprints with long two to three pedal imprints. Exactly, Zanclonychopus differs from Ursichnus Diedrich (2011) by its position of digit I, shorter digit imprints and absence of claw imprints. Hirpexipes Sarjeant et al. (2002) is known as semidigitigrade to semiplantigrade footprints with all digits long and with sharp claws. Zanclonychopus has stocky and shorter digit imprints.