Enigmatic dinosaur footprints from the Lower Jurassic of Poland

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Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2002, 46 (4): 467–472

Enig matic di no saur foot prints from the Lower Ju ras sic of Po land

Gerard GIERLIŃSKI and Grzegorz NIEDZWIEDZKI

Gierliński G. and Niedźwiedzki R. (2002) — Enig matic di no saur foot prints from the Lower Ju ras sic of Po land. Geol. Quart., 46 (4):

467–472.

Three un usual di no saur ichnites are re ported from the Hettangian strata of the Holy Cross Moun tains, Cen tral Po land. The tracks are com pared with sim i lar forms from the Up per Tri as sic and Lower Ju ras sic of North Amer ica. The Pol ish foot prints re sem ble Stenonyx Hitch cock (1865), a very small print pre sum ably left by a di min u tive or a baby theropod, and Atreipus Olsen and Baird (1986), a foot print sus pected to be of ornithischian or i gin, ba si cally known from Late Tri as sic de pos its.

Gerard Gierliński, Pol ish Geo log i cal In sti tute, ul. Rakowiecka 4, PL-00-975 Warszawa, Po land; Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, De part ment of Bi ol ogy, War saw Uni ver sity, ul. Miecznikowa 1, PL-02-096 Warszawa, Po land, e-mail: GrzegorzNiedzwiedzki@poczta.net-line.pl (re - ceived: April 17, 2002; ac cepted: Au gust 19, 2002).

Key words: Po land, Lower Ju ras sic, di no saur foot prints.

INTRODUCTION

Sołtyków and Gliniany Las were the first dis cov ered, and thus far the rich est and the best known di no saur tracksites in the Lower Ju ras sic of Po land (e.g. Gierliński, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1999; Gierliński and Sawicki, 1998; Gierliński and Pieńkowski, 1999; Gierliński et al., 2001). How ever, con tin - ued in ves ti ga tion into ma te rial col lected dur ing the last two de - cades con tin ues to re veal new informations. Here we de scribe three spec i mens: Muz. PIG 1560.II.23, 40 and 62. All are pre - served as nat u ral casts. The foot print of a very small tridactyl bi ped (Muz. PIG 1560.II.23, Fig. 2A) and the track of a qua - dru pe dal trackmaker (Muz. PIG 1560.II.40, Fig. 3A) came from late Hettangian bar rier-la goonal sed i ments be long ing to the Przysucha Ore-Bear ing For ma tion, ex posed in the Gliniany Las quarry. The foot print of a very small bi ped oc curs on slab Muz. PIG 1560.II.23, where the sit ting trace of Anomoepus pienkovskii Gierliński (1991), is also pre served.

The foot print Muz. PIG 1560.II.62 (Fig. 1A) is sim i lar to the small one from Gliniany Las, and it was found in the early Hettangian al lu vial plain sed i ments of the lower Zagaje For - ma tion, in Sołtyków.

The tracks de scribed herein are in ter preted only ten ta - tively, de spite their good pres er va tion, be cause of their doubt - ful af fin i ties.

DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION

The Sołtyków spec i men Muz. PIG 1560.II.62 (Fig. 1A) is a 54 mm long tridactyl footprint with a to tal digit divarication of 30°. The digit length ra tios (ac cord ing to the method of Olsen et al., 1998) are: III/II = 1.16, III/IV = 0.77. In ter est ingly, these ra tios are the same as those of a ten milli metre smaller ichnite CU-MWC 183.2 (Fig. 1B) from the Lower Ju ras sic of Utah, a foot print re ported by Lockley (1986) and Lockley and Hunt (1995).

The Gliniany Las spec i men Muz. PIG 1560.II.23 (Fig. 2A) was left by a very small tridactyl bi ped and is 56 mm long. Its to - tal digit divarication equals 44°, while digit length ra tios are:

III/II = 1.30, III/IV = 0.95. These pa ram e ters re sem ble Stenonyx lateralis Hitch cock (1865), a print al most twice smaller (30 mm long) from the Lower Ju ras sic of Mas sa chu setts (spec i men AC 47/40, Fig. 2B). The to tal digit divarication of AC 47/40 is 42°, while digit length ra tios are: III/II = 1.36, III/IV = 0.96.

Weems (1992) has con sid ered Stenonyx lateralis as the baby track of the Kayentapus Welles (1971) trackmaker. How - ever, James O. Farlow (writ ten comm., 2002) has noted that the dig its in the Pol ish spec i men are much more spread out at their prox i mal ends than in Stenonyx lateralis, which might sug gest a dif fer ence in the ar chi tec ture of the dis tal end of the metatarsus of the two trackmakers. More over, the very rich Gliniany Las as sem blage lacks Kayentapus. Thus, the Pol ish

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468 Gerard Gierliński and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki

Fig. 1. A — cf. Stenonyx sp. (Muz. PIG 1560.II.62) from the Zagaje For ma tion of Sołtyków, Po land in com par i son with B — cf. Stenonyx sp.

(CU-MWC 183.2) from the Na vajo For ma tion of Sand Wash site, Utah

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spec i men Muz PIG 1560.II.23 seems to have been made by some di min u tive theropod or a ju ve nile of some other form, dif fer ent from the Kayentapus tracmakers. Ac cord ing to the data given by Olsen et al. (1998), the digit length ra tios of both the dis cussed ichnites are in deed closer to those of large theropods such as Liliensternus Welles (1984) (III/II = 1.32, III/IV = 0.82) and Dilophosaurus Welles (1970) (III/II = 1.38, III/IV = 0.86) rather than to the small early theropods.

In our opin ion, the foot prints from Sołtyków (Muz. PIG 1560.II.62) and Utah (CU-MWC 183.2) cor re spond to the Stenonyx pat tern and should be re ferred to this ichnogenus,

rather than to other forms. Other di min u tive theropod tracks, Wildeichnus navesi Casamiquela (1964) from the Mid dle Ju - ras sic of Ar gen tina, dif fer from the Pol ish and North Amer i can spec i mens in hav ing a higher pro jected mid dle toe, as well as thin ner and more widely divaricated dig its.

Spec i men Muz. PIG 1560.II.40 (Fig. 3A) is the next prob - lem atic ichnite from the Lower Ju ras sic of Po land. The track com prises a tridactyl pes (11.8 cm long, 7.7 cm wide) and a tridactyl manus (4 cm long, 4.4 cm wide). The pedal digit length ra tios are: III/II = 1.23, III/IV = 0.79. The ra tio of the third digit pro jected be yond the lat eral dig its to the foot print

Enigmatic dinosaur footprints from the Lower Jurassic of Poland 469

Fig. 2. A — cf. Stenonyx sp. (Muz. PIG 1560.II.23) from the Przysucha Ore-Bearing For ma tion of Gliniany Las, Po land in com par i son with B — the holotype of Stenonyx lateralis Hitch cock (1865) (AC 47/40), from the Port land For ma tion of Turners Falls, Mas sa chu setts

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Fig. 3. A — cf. Atreipus sp. (Muz. PIG 1560.II.40) from the Przysucha Ore-Bearing For ma tion of Gliniany Las, Po land in com par i son with B — Atreipus sp. (GNCRA spec i men) from the Chinle For ma tion of Four Mile Can yon, Utah

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width equals 0.33. The man ual mor phol ogy and the pedal digit length ra tios well fit the spec i men from the Chinle For ma tion of Utah (Fig. 3B) de scribed by Lockley et al. (1998) as Atreipus Olsen and Baird (1986). How ever, the ra tio of the third digit pro jec tion to the foot print width in the Amer i can spec i men is mark edly dif fer ent (0.57), the dig its are thin ner, the foot print is more slen der and the manus is lo cated anteromedially to the pes, far ther from the pedal print. More over, “clas sic” Atreipus tracks are known from the Up per Tri as sic.

The only hith erto known Atreipus-like tracks in post-Norian strata have been de scribed as Delatorrichnus Casamiquela, 1964 from the Mid dle Ju ras sic of Ar gen tina, and pos si bly also oc cur ring in the Lower Ju ras sic of Zim ba bwe (Lingham-Soliar and Broderick, 2000).

The “clas sic” Late Tri as sic tracks of Atreipus show a com - bi na tion of small theropod-like (Grallator-like) pes with the prim i tive archosaurian (chirotheriid) manus which is much smaller then the pes. Olsen and Baird (1986) have ar gued that such a com bi na tion might have been made by a basal ornithischian trackmaker. Con trary to the opin ion of Olsen and Baird (1986), and Gierliński (1994), other au thors, Thulborn (1990) and Weems (1992) pre ferred a theropod or i gin for Atreipus ichnites. If those au thors are right and Atreipus was made by a qua dru pe dal theropod, then an in ter est ing par a dox ap pears. If the atreipodid man ual im print was pro duced by a theropod, than the Pol ish Atreipus-like track Muz. PIG 1560.II.40 shows a com bi na tion of an ornithischian-like pes with a theropod manus.

De spite the sim i lar i ties of the pedal digit length ra tios be - tween Muz. PIG 1560.II.40 (Fig. 3A) and Atreipus sp. from the Up per Tri as sic of Utah (Fig. 3B), the Pol ish spec i men is clearly dis tin guished by a more ornithischian-like pes than any Atreipus foot print. Spec i men Muz. PIG 1560.II.40 has even been pre vi ously mis in ter preted as an Anomoepus Hitch cock (1848) track (Gierliński, 1995). Its digit length ra tios re sem ble those of Heterodontosaurus Crompton and Charig (1962)

(III/II = 1.32, III/IV = 0.73; ac cord ing to Olsen et al., 1998).

This ob ser va tion con cerns also the Amer i can spec i men from the Chinle For ma tion with digit length ra tios: III/II = 1.31, III/IV = 0.70. How ever, heterodontosaurid re mains are un - known in the Up per Tri as sic and the Atreipus man ual mor phol - ogy does not closely match the Heterodontosaurus man ual pat - tern. The Heterodontosaurus manus is very large in com par i - son to the pes, much too large to fit the manus-pes area ra tio of Atreipus, which is around 1:10. Nat u rally, if the qua dru pe dal stance of Heterodontosaurus sug gested by Paul (1987) is cor - rect, then the an i mal might have pos sessed func tion ally subdigitigrade or even unguligrade forelimbs while walk ing. In such cir cum stances, man ual im pres sions might be as small as we can see in Atreipus, but then the re duced heterodontosaurid man ual digit IV and V would not touch the ground. Thus, a hy - po thet i cal heterodontosaurid man ual im pres sion might never be tetradactyl as it ap pears in Atreipus acadianus Olsen and Baird (1986), and the im pres sions of man ual dig its should in - crease in length in the se quence I, II, III not I, IV, II, III as it is shown by Atreipus tracks.

How ever, we can not re ject the pos si bil ity that a heterodontosaurid might be re spon si ble for the post-Norian Atreipus-like tracks. Their man ual prints are al ways tridactyl, we do not know their ex act digit nu mer a tion, and those man ual prints are slightly larger in com par i son to the pes than in the

“clas sic” Tri as sic Atreipus. In spec i men Muz. PIG 1560.II.40, the manus-pes area ra tio equals 1:7.

Ab bre vi a tions of cited re pos i to ries: AC — Pratt Mu seum of Nat u ral His tory, Amherst Col lege, Amherst, Mas sa chu setts, USA; CU-MWC — Uni ver sity of Col o rado/Mu seum of West - ern Col o rado Joint Col lec tion, Den ver, Col o rado, USA;

GCNRA — Glen Can yon Na tional Rec re ation Area, Utah, USA; Muz. PIG — Geo log i cal Mu seum of the Pol ish Geo log i - cal In sti tute, War saw, Po land.

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