Caseidae are an extinct family of basal synapsids that lived from the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian between about 300 and 265 million years ago. Fossils of these animals come from the south-central part of the United States, from various parts of Europe, and possibly from South Africa if the genus Eunotosaurus is indeed a caseid as some authors proposed in 2021. Caseids show great taxonomic and morphological diversity. The most basal taxa were small insectivorous and omnivorous forms that lived mainly in the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian, such as Eocasea, Callibrachion, and Martensius. This type of caseid persists until the middle Permian with Phreatophasma and may be Eunotosaurus. During the early Permian, the clade is mainly represented by many species that adopted a herbivorous diet. Some have evolved into gigantic forms that can reach 6–7 metres (20–23 ft) in length, such as Cotylorhynchus hancocki and Alierasaurus ronchii, making them the largest Permian synapsids. Caseids are considered important components of early terrestrial ecosystems in vertebrate history because the numerous herbivorous species in this family are among the first terrestrial tetrapods to occupy the role of primary consumer. The caseids experienced a significant evolutionary radiation at the end of the early Permian, becoming, with the captorhinid eureptiles, the dominant herbivores of terrestrial ecosystems in place of the edaphosaurids and diadectids.
A fossil track or ichnite is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the years, many ichnites have been found, around the world, giving important clues about the behaviour of the animals that made them. For instance, multiple ichnites of a single species, close together, suggest 'herd' or 'pack' behaviour of that species.
Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They may either be indentations in the ground or something placed onto the surface that was stuck to the bottom of the foot. A "trackway" is a set of footprints in soft earth left by a life-form; animal tracks are the footprints, hoofprints, or pawprints of an animal.
The Devonian Scherr Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Saurexallopus is an ichnogenus of four-toed theropod footprints from the Late Cretaceous period. The type ichnospecies is S. lovei, named and described in 1996 from the Harebell Formation. The taxon was originally named Exallopus, but later renamed as Saurexallopus as the former was preoccupied by a polychaete. A second species, S.zerbsti, was named and described in 2004 from the Lance Formation. In 2012 a four-toed track from the Cantwell Formation was referred to Saurexallopus indet. It was also suggested that Saurexallopus was produced by a therizinosaur taxon. In 2013 based on skeletal proportions it was suggested that the ichnotaxon was instead produced by an oviraptorosaur taxon. In 2014 a third species was named, S.cordata, from the Wapiti Formation. In 2018 several tracks from the Blackhawk Formation were referred to Saurexallopus indet.
Paleontology in Oklahoma refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a rich fossil record spanning all three eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Oklahoma is the best source of Pennsylvanian fossils in the United States due to having an exceptionally complete geologic record of the epoch. From the Cambrian to the Devonian, all of Oklahoma was covered by a sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, graptolites and trilobites. During the Carboniferous, an expanse of coastal deltaic swamps formed in areas of the state where early tetrapods would leave behind footprints that would later fossilize. The sea withdrew altogether during the Permian period. Oklahoma was home a variety of insects as well as early amphibians and reptiles. Oklahoma stayed dry for most of the Mesozoic. During the Late Triassic, carnivorous dinosaurs left behind footprints that would later fossilize. During the Cretaceous, however, the state was mostly covered by the Western Interior Seaway, which was home to huge ammonites and other marine invertebrates. During the Cenozoic, Oklahoma became home to creatures like bison, camels, creodonts, and horses. During the Ice Age, the state was home to mammoths and mastodons. Local Native Americans are known to have used fossils for medicinal purposes. The Jurassic dinosaur Saurophaganax maximus is the Oklahoma state fossil.
This article records new taxa of trace fossils of every kind that are scheduled to be described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to trace fossil paleontology that are scheduled to occur in the year 2019.
Dromopus is a reptilian ichnogenus commonly found in assemblages of ichnofossils dating to the late Pennsylvanian to the late Permian. It has been found throughout Europe, as well as in the United States, Canada, and Morocco. Several ichnospecies have been named; only the type ichnospecies D. lacertoides is definitively recognized.
Gwyneddichnium is an ichnogenus from the Late Triassic of North America and Europe. It represents a form of reptile footprints and trackways, likely produced by small tanystropheids such as Tanytrachelos. Gwyneddichnium includes a single species, Gwyneddichnium major. Two other proposed species, G. elongatum and G. minore, are indistinguishable from G. major apart from their smaller size and minor taphonomic discrepancies. As a result, they are considered junior synonyms of G. major.
Bellatoripes is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a large theropod dinosaur so far known only from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. The tracks are large and three-toed, and based on their size are believed to have been made by tyrannosaurids, such as Albertosaurus and Daspletosaurus. Fossils of Bellatoripes are notable for preserving trackways of multiple individual tyrannosaurids all travelling in the same direction at similar speeds, suggesting the prints may have been made by a group, or pack, of tyrannosaurids moving together. Such inferences of behaviour cannot be made with fossil bones alone, so the record of Bellatoripes tracks together is important for understanding how large predatory theropods such as tyrannosaurids may have lived.
Protochirotherium, also known as Protocheirotherium, is a Late Permian?-Early Triassic ichnotaxon consisting of five-fingered (pentadactyl) footprints and whole tracks, discovered in Germany and later Morocco, Poland and possibly also Italy. The type ichnospecies is P. wolfhagenense, discovered by R. Kunz in 1999 alongside Chirotherium tracks, was named and described in 2004 and re-evaluated in 2007; a second ichnospecies, P. hauboldi, also exists, which was initially described as an ichnospecies of Brachychirotherium. Protochirotherium-like prints have also been documented from the Late Permian of Italy, possibly representing the oldest known fossils of mesaxonic archosauromorphs.
Thinopus is the name given to a trace fossil (ichnotaxon) found in late Devonian rocks in Pennsylvania. The only specimen was described by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in a brief note published in 1896, with the only ichnospecies Thinopus antiquus. Marsh interpreted it as the fossil footprints of an early amphibian, making it the oldest evidence for tetrapods known at the time. Later research, however, argued that the fossil is better interpreted as the impressions of coprolites of fish. This would make Thinopus the earliest published name of a fish coprolite.
Brachychirotherium is an ichnogenus, a form taxon based on footprints. It is a type of chirothere, a term referring to the footprints of five-toed Triassic reptiles with a short fifth digit, leaving an appearance similar to a reverse human hand print. Brachychirotherium was first characterized from fossils found in Triassic beds in Germany, but has since been found in France, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, and North America.
Rhynchosauroides is an ichnogenus, a form taxon based on footprints. The organism producing the footprints was likely a lepidosaur and may have been a sphenodont, an ancestor of the modern tuatara. The footprint consists of five digits, of which the fifth is shortened and the first highly shortened.
The Timezgadiouine Formation, sometimes spelled as the Timesgadiouine Formation, is a Triassic geological formation in the Argana Basin of Morocco. It is a succession of red bed sediments spanning from the Olenekian to at least the Carnian, encompassing members T3 to T5 of the Argana Group. It is preceded by the Permian Ikakern Formation and succeeded by the Late Triassic Bigoudine Formation.
Amphisauropus is an amphibian ichnogenus commonly found in assemblages of ichnofossils dating to the Permian to Triassic. It has been found in Europe, Morocco, and North America.
Hyloidichnus is a reptile ichnogenus commonly found in assemblages of ichnofossils dating to the Permian to Triassic in North America, Africa, South America, and Europe.
Characichnos is an ichnogenus of possibly dinosaurian tetrapod footprint. It includes a single species, C. tridactylus, known from prints found in the Middle Jurassic Saltwick Formation of Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
The Zachelmie trackways are a series of Middle Devonian-age trace fossils in Poland, purportedly the oldest evidence of terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods) in the fossil record. These trackways were discovered in the Wojciechowice Formation, an Eifelian-age carbonate unit exposed in the Zachełmie Quarry of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains]. The discovery of these tracks has complicated the study of tetrapod evolution. Morphological studies suggest that four-limbed vertebrates are descended from a specialized type of tetrapodomorph fish, the epistostegalians. This hypothesis was supported further by the discovery and 2006 description of Tiktaalik, a well-preserved epistostegalian from the Frasnian of Nunavut. Crucial to this idea is the assumption that tetrapods originated in the Late Devonian, after elpistostegalians appear in the fossil record near the start of the Frasnian. The Zachelmie trackways, however, appear to demonstrate that tetrapods were present prior to the Late Devonian. The implications of this find has led to several different perspectives on the sequence of events involved in tetrapod evolution.
Stephen C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site, formerly the Union Chapel Mine, is a former coal mine that became an important fossil site in Alabama after an Oneonta High School science teacher discovered tracks in the rocks at the site while preparing for a school field trip. The mine belonged to a family member of one of the children in his class. It is east of Jasper, Alabama in Walker County, Alabama.
