User:Abyssal/Duquettichnus
Cretaceous bird and mammal tracks
[edit]During the course of examining the "natural mold talus block (TMP 98.89.20)" William Sarjeant discovered "extremely shallowly impressed" mammal tracks preserved in the lower center part of the specimen.[1] Mammal footprints had previously documented from the Gething Formation strata of the Peace River Canyon.[1] These tracks were given the name Duquettichnus kooli by second author William Sarjeant and Thulborn in 1986.[1] They were so large and so closely resembled the tracks of the modern Australian brush tail possum that the authors concluded that they were left by a marsupial.[1] The Gates Formation tracks, by contrast, were the smallest mammal tracks reported from Mesozoic strata, and had a significantly different morphology.[2]
Footnotes
[edit]Reference
[edit]- McCrea, R. T. and W. A S. Sarjeant. 2001. New ichnotaxa of bird and mammal footprints from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Gates Formation of Alberta; pp. 453–478 in D. H. Tanke, and K. Carpenter, (eds.), Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.