Therizinosauridae is an extinct family of derived (advanced) therizinosauroid dinosaurs whose fossil remains have been found in mostly Late Cretaceous boundary. Even though representative fossils have only been found throughout Asia and North America, the range of Therizinosauridae is believed to have spanned much of the supercontinent of Laurasia based on several footprints and isolated remains in Europe and Africa. Currently, Therizinosauridae comprises eight described and named taxa.
Grallator ["GRA-luh-tor"] is an ichnogenus which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Grallator-type footprints have been found in formations dating from the Early Triassic through to the early Cretaceous periods. They are found in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and China, but are most abundant on the east coast of North America, especially the Triassic and Early Jurassic formations of the northern part of the Newark Supergroup. The name Grallator translates into "stilt walker", although the actual length and form of the trackmaking legs varied by species, usually unidentified. The related term "Grallae" is an ancient name for the presumed group of long-legged wading birds, such as storks and herons. These footprints were given this name by their discoverer, Edward Hitchcock, in 1858.
Megalosauripus is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to dinosaurs. The first ever appearance of this ichnospecies is 201 - 197 million years ago during the Early Jurassic period. The last recorded appearance was 156 - 151 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
The Harebell Formation is a Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) geologic formation in Wyoming which outcrops in parts of the Yellowstone National Park. Dinosaur remains diagnostic to the genus level are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
Jialingpus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur, likely a theropod. Its footprints have been found in the Feitianshan Formation, a low-energy lake formation. Holotype is SCFP-24, which was found in Late Jurassic (Oxfordian)-aged Yuechi tracksite at Huanglong, China. These footprints were found within the vicinity of those of the smaller theropod Minisauripus, meaning that Jialingpus likely hunted Minisauripus.
Caririchnium is an ichnogenus of ornithopod dinosaur footprint, belonging to either derived iguanodonts or basal hadrosauroids. It includes the species Caririchnium lotus from Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation and C. protohadrosaurichnos from Upper Cretaceous Woodbine Formation. Specimens are also known from the Lower Cretaceous El Castellar Formation and Camarillas Formations.
Deltapodus is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a stegosaurian dinosaur According to the main Stegosauria article:
Macropodosaurus is an ichnogenus of therizinosaurid footprints from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, North America and Poland. The ichnogenus is currently monotypic only including the type ichnospecies M. gravis, described and named in 1964.
Tyrannosauripus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint. It was discovered by geologist Charles "Chuck" Pillmore in 1983 and formally described by Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt in 1994. This fossil footprint from northern New Mexico is 96 cm long and given its Late Cretaceous age, it very likely belonged to the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. In 2016 the size of this individual was estimated at 11.4 meters and 5.8-6.9 tonnes. Similar tridactyl dinosaur tracks in North America were discovered earlier and named Tyrannosauropus in 1971, but they were later recognized as hadrosaurid tracks and their description deemed inadequate, with Tyrannosauropus regarded as a nomen dubium. True footprints likely from Tyrannosaurus would not be found until the discovery of Tyrannosauripus. In 2007, a large tyrannosaurid track was found also in eastern Montana. In 2016, a probable fossil trackway of Tyrannosaurus was discovered in Wyoming.
Tyrannosauropus is a dubious ichnogenus of tridactyl dinosaur footprint from the Campanian of the Late Cretaceous of North America. Tyrannosauropus was named for a collection of footprints discovered on the ceiling of a cave in Utah which were suggested to have been made by Tyrannosaurus and informally labelled as "Tyrannosauripus" in 1924. These footprints would later be named by Haubold in 1971 as Tyrannosauropus petersoni, and attributed to Tyrannosaurus rex. However, Tyrannosauropus are Campanian in age, pre-dating the Maastrichtian age for Tyrannosaurus, and the morphology of the footprints more closely resembles those of hadrosaurid dinosaurs than those of theropods. Furthermore, in 1994 another footprint was described as likely belonging to Tyrannosaurus that matched it in both age and morphology and was named Tyrannosauripus. In the same publication, the description of Tyrannosauropus was deemed inadequate, with the holotype damaged and lost, and the ichnotaxon was declared undiagnostic and thus a nomen dubium.
The Tomanová Formation is a Late Triassic geologic formation in Poland and Slovakia. Fossil theropod tracks have been reported from the formation.
The timeline of therizinosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on therizinosaurs. They were unusually long-necked, pot-bellied, and large-clawed herbivorous theropods most closely related to birds. The early history of therizinosaur research occurred in three phases. The first phase was the discovery of scanty and puzzling fossils in Asia by the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the 1920s and Soviet-backed research in the 1950s. This phase resulted in the discovery of the Therizinosaurus cheloniformis type specimen. Soviet paleontologist Evgeny Maleev interpreted these unusual remains as belonging to some kind of gigantic turtle.
The 20th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1900 and 1999 in the scientific study of trace fossils, the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms, especially fossil footprints. Significant fossil trackway discoveries began almost immediately after the start of the 20th century with the 1900 discovery at Ipolytarnoc, Hungary of a wide variety of bird and mammal footprints left behind during the early Miocene. Not long after, fossil Iguanodon footprints were discovered in Sussex, England, a discovery that probably served as the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
John Russell Foster is an American paleontologist. Foster has worked with dinosaur remains from the Late Jurassic of the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains, Foster is also working on Cambrian age trilobite faunas in the southwest region of the American west. He named the crocodyliform trace fossil Hatcherichnus sanjuanensis in 1997 and identified the first known occurrence of the theropod trace fossil Hispanosauropus in North America in 2015.
ReBecca Hunt-Foster is an American paleontologist. She has worked with dinosaur remains from the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous of the Colorado Plateau, Rocky Mountains, Southcentral, and the Southwestern United States of America. She described the dinosaur Arkansaurus fridayi and identified the first juvenile Torosaurus occurrences from Big Bend National Park in North America in 2008.
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.
The El Molino Formation is a Maastrichtian geologic formation pertaining to the Puca Group of central Bolivia. The formation comprises fine-grained sandstones and sandy limestones with stromatolites deposited in a shallow marine to lacustrine environment. The formation has provided fossils of Dolichochampsa minima, and ichnofossils of Ankylosauria indet., Ornithopoda indet., Theropoda indet. and Titanosauridae indet. The tracksite of Cal Orcko is the best known example of the ichnofossil locations of the formation. The ichnofossil of Ligabueichnum bolivianum may be attributed to an ankylosaur. The fossil fish species Dasyatis molinoensis is named after the formation.
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.
Wakinyantanka is an ichnogenus of footprint produced by a large theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Wakinyantanka tracks are large with three long, slender toes with occasional impressions of a short hallux and narrow metatarsals. Wakinyantanka was the first dinosaur track to be discovered in the Hell Creek Formation, which remain rare in the preservational conditions of the rocks. The potential trackmakers may be a large oviraptorosaur or a small tyrannosaurid.
The Shengjinkou Formation is an Early Cretaceous (Aptian)-aged Konservat-Lagerstätte composed of "interbedded red green and yellow variegated mudstones and siltstones" that is part of the larger Tugulu Group of China. Dinosaur and pterosaur remains have been recovered from the formation.
