Comerio, Marcos

Díaz-Martínez, Ignacio

Fernández, Diana Elizabeth

Heredia, Arturo Miguel

Pazos, Pablo José

German

Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg: Elektronische Zeitschriften

Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften, Beiheft 46 (2019) 37Gregariousness among non-avian theropods: a case study from a Patagonian dinosaur tracksite, Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian), Argentinaarturo Miguel heredia1*, ignacio díaz-Martínez2, pablo José pazos1, Marcos coMerio3, diana elizabeth Fernández11 CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Estudios Andinos Don Pablo Groeber (IDEAN). Buenos Aires, Argentina2 CONICET - Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología (IIPG). Gene-ral Roca, Río Negro, Argentina3 Centro de Tecnología de Recursos Minerales y Cerámica (CETMIC). Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina*presenting author, heredia@gl.fcen.uba.arAbstract:Gregarious behaviour is an important aspect of dinosaur paleoecology and has been inferred from several evidences: monospecific bonebeds, skeletal morphology, phylogenetic inferences, com-parison with modern ecosystems and parallel trackways. Nevertheless, it is relatively poorly docu-mented and understood among non-avian theropods. In the Cenomanian Candeleros Formation (northwestern Patagonia) several parallel tridactyl trackways were recorded, including five theropod trackways of medium track size (average length of 28 cm). These trackways possess similar stride, speed estimation, preservational features, uniform depth, and the same direction as non-overlap-ping tracks. They are preserved as shallow under tracks in a medium-grained sandstone bed inter-preted as floodplain deposits. The tracking surface would have been an immediately overlying thin layer of muddy-siltstone containing a minor percentage of expandable clays (smectite). The latter gave a certain degree of coherence and plasticity to the substrate, sufficient to preserve several an-atomical track features. Considering the theropod taxa documented in the same unit as well as the size and track morphology, abelisaurid or carcharodontosaurid theropods are suggested as track-makers. Physical barriers (i.e., large fluvial channels or perennial lakes) that could control the moving direction of the theropods were not recognized in the track-bearing level, nor were revealed by the analysed interval. Taking into account that there are no evidences of physical constraints and that all parallel trackways possess similar features such as stride, speed, preservation, depth, and direction, a gregarious behaviour of their producers can be suggested.Keywords: theropod footprints, gregarious behaviour, Upper Cretaceous, Neuquén Basin

Gregariousness among non-avian theropods: a case study from a Patagonian dinosaur tracksite, Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian), Argentina

https://public.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/hjgb/article/download/1843/1878

Gregariousness among non-avian theropods: a case study from a Patagonian dinosaur tracksite, Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian), Argentina

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Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg: Elektronische Zeitschriften