Triassic chirotheriid footprints from the Swiss Alps: ichnotaxonomy and depositional environment (Cantons Wallis & Glarus)

Autochthonous Triassic sediments of the Vieux Emosson Formation near Lac d’Emosson, southwestern Switzerland, have yielded assemblages with abundant archosaur footprints that are assigned to chirotheriids based on pentadactyl pes and manus imprints with characteristic digit proportions. Tridactyl footprints formerly considered as those of dinosaurs are identified as incomplete extramorphological variants of chirotheriids. Recently discovered new sites, including a surface with about 1500 imprints, permit re-evaluation of ichnotaxonomy and modes of preservation. Most common are oval to circular impressions arranged in an ‘‘hourglass-like’’ shape, corresponding to pes-manus couples. Sediment displacement rims indicate the presence of true tracks rather than undertracks. A few well-preserved footprints with distinct digit traces allow closer assignments. Several chirotheriid ichnotaxa are present with Chirotherium barthii,?Chirotherium sickleri, Isochirotherium herculis, Chirotheriidae cf. Isochirotherium isp. and indeterminate forms. This corresponds with characteristic assemblages from the Buntsandstein of the Germanic Basin. In the study area, the Vieux Emosson Formation is an up to 10 m thick finingupward sequence with conglomerates, rippled sandstones, siltstones and mudstones and occasionally carbonate nodules. Sedimentological features such as high relief erosion, immature sediments, erosionally truncated metre-scale fining-upward sequences, palaeosols and unidirectional palaeocurrents clearly prove a fluvial depositional environment with sediment transport towards the northwest and the Germanic Basin. This contrasts with former assumptions of a coastal marine environment and a south-facing transport towards the Tethys. The footprints occur in the coarser lower portion of the sequence that is interpreted as a shallow braided river. From Obersand in the eastern Swiss Alps, a surface in dolomitic limestone (Ro¨ti Dolomite) is re-examined. The footprints are identified as Chirotherium barthii and were impressed in a carbonate tidal flat environment. Biostratigraphically, the occurrence of characteristic Buntsandstein assemblages with Chirotherium barthii supports an Anisian age of both locations

Sustained fluvial deposition recorded in Mars’ Noachian stratigraphic record

Orbital observation has revealed a rich record of fluvial landforms on Mars, with much of this record dating 3.6–3.0 Ga. Despite widespread geomorphic evidence, few analyses of Mars’ alluvial sedimentary-stratigraphic record exist, with detailed studies of alluvium largely limited to smaller sand-bodies amenable to study in-situ by rovers. These typically metre-scale outcrop dimensions have prevented interpretation of larger scale channel-morphology and long-term basin evolution, vital for understanding the past Martian climate. Here we give an interpretation of a large sedimentary succession at Izola mensa within the NW Hellas Basin rim. The succession comprises channel and barform packages which together demonstrate that river deposition was already well established >3.7 Ga. The deposits mirror terrestrial analogues subject to low-peak discharge variation, implying that river deposition at Izola was subject to sustained, potentially perennial, fluvial flow. Such conditions would require an environment capable of maintaining large volumes of water for extensive time-periods, necessitating a precipitation-driven hydrological cycle