A standard protocol for documenting modern and fossil ichnological data

© The Palaeontological Association. The collection and dissemination of vertebrate ichnological data is struggling to keep up with techniques that are becoming commonplace in the wider palaeontological field. A standard protocol is required to ensure that data is recorded, presented and archived in a manner that will be useful both to contemporary researchers, and to future generations. Primarily, our aim is to make the 3D capture of ichnological data standard practice, and to provide guidance on how such 3D data can be communicated effectively (both via the literature and other means) and archived openly and in perpetuity. We recommend capture of 3D data, and the presentation of said data in the form of photographs, false-colour images, and interpretive drawings. Raw data (3D models of traces) should always be provided in a form usable by other researchers (i.e. in an open format). If adopted by the field as a whole, the result will be a more robust and uniform literature, supplemented by unparalleled availability of datasets for future workers

Issi saaneq gen. Et sp. nov.—A new sauropodomorph dinosaur from the late triassic (norian) of jameson land, central east greenland

UIDB/04035/2020The Late Triassic (Norian) outcrops of the Malmros Klint Formation, Jameson Land (Green-land) have yielded numerous specimens of non-sauropod sauropodomorphs. Relevant fossils were briefly reported in 1994 and were assigned to Plateosaurus trossingensis. However, continuous new findings of early non-sauropod sauropodomorphs around the globe facilitate comparisons and allow us to now revise this material. Here, the non-sauropod sauropodomorph Issi saaneq gen. et sp. nov. is described based on two almost complete and articulated skulls. The two skulls represent a middle-stage juvenile and a late-stage juvenile or subadult. Issi saaneq differs from all other sauropodomorphs by several unique traits: (1) a small foramen at the medial surface of the premaxilla; (2) an anteropos-teriorly elongated dorsoposterior process of the squamosal; (3) a relatively high quadrate relative to rostrum height; (4) a well-developed posterodorsal process of the articular. These features cannot be explained by taphonomy, ontogeny, or intraspecific variation. Issi saaneq shows affinities to Brazilian plateosaurids and the European Plateosaurus, being recovered as the sister clade of the latter in our phylogenetic analysis. It is the northernmost record of a Late Triassic sauropodomorph, and a new dinosaur species erected for Greenland. Issi saaneq broadens our knowledge about the evolution of plateosaurid sauropodomorphs.publishersversionpublishe

A possible phytosaurian (Archosauria, pseudosuchia) coprolite from the late triassic fleming fjord group of jameson land, central east Greenland

Funding Information: This project is part of a combined sedimentological, palaeontological and magnetostratigraphical investigation of the Late Triassic vertebrate-bearing continental deposits in central East Greenland supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. We thank Dennis V. Kent for productive discussions on Late Triassic stratigraphy. We are grateful to Karen Dybkjær, GEUS, for help with palynological examination of the coprolite. We thank Bo Markussen, Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, for guidance about statistical analyses. We gratefully acknowledge support from Dronning Margrethes og Prins Henriks Fond, Arbejdsmarkedets Feriefond, Oticon Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Louis Petersens Legat, Det Obelske Familiefond, Ernst og Vibeke Husmans Fond, the Carlsberg Foundation and Geocenter Møns Klint. GEUS provided valuable logistical support. We thank Adrian Hunt and an anonymous referee for constructive reviews.A large, well-preserved vertebrate coprolite was found in a lacustrine sediment in the Malmros Klint Formation of the Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Group in the Jameson Land Basin, central East Greenland. The size and internal and external morphology of the coprolite is consistent with that of crocodilian coprolites and one end of the coprolite exhibits evidence of post-egestion trampling. As the associated vertebrate fauna of the Fleming Fjord Group contains abundant remains of pseudosuchian phytosaurs, the coprolite is interpreted as being from a large phytosaur.publishersversionpublishe