Didactyl raptor tracks from the Cretaceous,Plainview Sandstone at Dinosaur Ridge |
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| Institution: | 1. Dinosaur Trackers Research Group, CB 172, University of Colorado Denver, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO, 80217-3364, USA;2. School of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China;3. National Operations Center, USDOI-Bureau of Land Management, Denver, CO, 80225, USA;4. Wyoming State Office, Bureau of Land Management, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 82003, USA;1. Department of Physics, Laser, Nonlinear and Quantum Optics Labs, University of Patras, Patras 26500, Greece;2. Laser Research Center, Vilnius University, Saul?tekio 10, Vilnius LT-10223, Lithuania;1. Unidad de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain;2. CONICET-Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología, General Roca 1242, 8332 General Roca, Argentina;3. Grupo de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, UNED, Paseo Senda del Rey 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain;1. Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis/Museo Aragonés de Paleontología, Av. Sagunto s/n, Teruel, E-44002, Spain;2. C/ Almazán 17, 2º C, Soria, E-42004, Spain |
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| Abstract: | Two natural casts of two-toed (didactyl) tracks from the Cretaceous (Albian) Plainview Sandstone (Plainview Member) of the South Platte Formation (Dakota Group) at Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado are attributed to deinonychosaurian theropod dinosaurs and placed in the ichnogenus Dromaeosauripus. This is both the first report of tracks from this unit in the Dinosaur Ridge area and the first report of deinonychosaurian tracks from Colorado. It is also only the third report of this track type from North America. The rarity of tracks from the Albian-aged, Plainview Sandstone (Dakota Group Sequence 2) contrasts with their abundance in the upper (Cenomanian) part of the overlying South Platte Formation (Dakota Group Sequence 3), which has yielded more than 120 sites mostly in Colorado, giving rise to the “Dinosaur Freeway” concept. As no deinonychosaurid tracks are known from the sequence 3 part of the South Platte Formation, despite the large vertebrate and invertebrate ichnological database available, it is evident that the sparse vertebrate ichnofauna from the Plainview Member (Sequence 2) is inherently different. This striking difference in both track abundance and track type reflects differences in both age and depositional environment. Based on the Albian age, and track type, the Plainview tracks invite comparison with the ichnofaunas of the Cedar Mountain Formation and not with those well-known from the upper part of the South Platte Formation known as the Dinosaur Freeway. |
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| Keywords: | Theropod Deinonychosaurs Footprints Cretaceous Dakota Group Colorado |
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