Geo log i cal Quar terly, 2004, 48 (2): 199–202
New finds of ver te brate foot prints from the Lower Perm ian of Wambierzyce, Po land
Tadeusz PTASZYÑSKI and Grzegorz NIEDZWIEDZKI
Ptaszyñski T. and Niedüwiedzki G. (2004) — New finds of ver te brate foot prints from the Lower Perm ian of Wambierzyce, Po land. Geol.
Quart., 48 (2): 199–202. Warszawa.
New spec i mens of ver te brate foot prints are re ported from the Early Perm ian de pos its in Po land. Foot prints dis cov ered in a well-known Early Perm ian Rotliegend tracksite at Wambierzyce (old Ger man name Albendorf) rep re sent ichnites of Hyloidichnus arnhardti Haubold, 1973.
Tadeusz Ptaszyñski, Stroñska 1 m 12, PL-01-461 Warszawa, Po land; e-mail: TPtasz@interia.pl; Grzegorz Niedüwiedzki, De part ment of Zo - ol ogy, Fac ulty of Bi ol ogy, War saw Uni ver sity, Banacha 2, PL-02-097 Warszawa, Po land; e-mail: GrzegorzNiedzwiedzki@poczta.net-line.pl (re ceived: Sep tem ber 26, 2003; ac cepted: March 3, 2004).
Key words: Po land, Intrasudetic Ba sin, Lower Perm ian, ver te brate foot prints.
INTRODUCTION
In au tumn of 2001, new ver te brate foot prints were dis cov - ered in the Rotliegend de pos its at Wambierzyce near K³odzko (for merly Albendorf) tracksite ex po sure, Intrasudetic Ba sin (Fig. 1). The new spec i mens were found and con served by an am a teur ge ol o gist, Mr. Artur Go³asa.
Ver te brate foot prints from Wambierzyce have been reported for over 140 years. They were originally dis cov ered by H. R. Goeppert in 1861 (and re ported to the Schlesische Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Kul tur) and re ported also by Goeppert in 1864/65 (see Czy¿ewska, 1955). The ver te brate foot prints from Wambierzyce were later de scribed by Pabst (1908) and more re cently by Czy¿ewska (1955).
The ver te brate track as sem blage iden ti fied from Wambierzyce in these stud ies in cludes: Dromopus lacertoides (Geinitz, 1861); Amphisauropus imminutus Haubold, 1970;
Ichniotherium cottae (Pohlig, 1885), and Dimetropus leisnerianus (Geinitz, 1863). The holotype of D. leisnerianus from Wambierzyce is housed in the Staatliches Mu seum für Mineralogie, Dresden, Ger many (Haubold, 1971).
The ma te rial came from Ratno quarry, lo cated near the road from Wambierzyce to Ratno (see also Czy¿ewska, 1955). The ex po sure re veals lam i nated claystones, shale and cal car e ous
sand stone. These de pos its rep re sent the up per part of the S³upiec For ma tion, known also as the “Walchia Shale” (see Nemec, 1981; Mastalerz et al., 1995). Ac cord ing to Mastalerz et al. (1995), this unit formed dur ing pro longed sed i men ta tion in a lac us trine en vi ron ment. Ma te rial de scribed by Pabst (1908), Czy¿ewska (1955) and the newly dis cov ered tracks were prob a bly formed on the lake shore.
A track as sem blage sim i lar to that of Wambierzyce was also iden ti fied in the lower part of the S³upiec For ma tion (“Build ing Sand stone” mem ber), con sist ing of sed i men tary rocks over lain con form ably by a few tens of me tres of ba saltic rocks ex posed at T³umaczów (Mastalerz et al., 1995). The sed i men tary rocks ex - posed in that quarry con sist of red dish-brown fine clastics and sand stones. The de pos its at T³umaczów ac cu mu lated on a flat, mud-sand plain to the shore of a shal low lake (Mastalerz et al., 1995). Ver te brate foot prints from T³umaczów are now be ing stud ied in de tail.
The aim of this short pa per is to de scribe new ma te rial of foot prints from Wambierzyce, be cause it con tains the first finds of the ichnogenus Hyloidichnus from this lo cal ity.
The lo cal ity needs fur ther in ves ti ga tion, as it may yield more in ter est ing Perm ian ver te brate foot prints, such as the rare, poorly known lacertoid and small am phib ian foot prints occasionally found at this strati graphic level.
SHORT COMMUNICATION
The slab con tain ing the spec i mens is housed in the col lec - tion of the Holy Cross Branch of the Pol ish Geo log i cal In sti tute in Kielce (Muz. PIG OS).
ICHNOSYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION
Ichnogenus: Hyloidichnus Gilmore 1927 Hyloidichnus arnhardti Haubold 1973
(Fig. 2A–E)
M a t e r i a l . — Muz. PIG OS-220/141, slab with track-bear ing sur face, nat u ral moulds (see Fig. 2); AG 7B (nat - u ral cast of the same sur face, spec i men housed in the pri vate col lec tion of A. Go³asa) with at least two well pre served trackways.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — Trackway. Man ual im prints are sit u - ated an te ri orly to the pedal prints. Pedal axes are close to the
midline, be ing slightly in clined at about +13°. The av er age in - cli na tion of man ual axes to the midline is more dis tinct, at tain - ing +21° up to +28°. The length of stride var ies from 72 mm to 82 mm. In the best pre served trackway (Fig. 2), pedal and man - ual pace angulation equal 86–91° and 97–100°, re spec tively.
The pedal width of paces is 40–44 mm. That value for man ual im prints at tains only 33 mm. Oblique pace length ranges in all mea sure ments from 86 mm up to 100 mm. Marks of the tail drag ging are not clearly vis i ble.
The length and width of pedal digit group I–IV is 12 and 16 mm. In the an other, more frag men tary pedal imprint sim i lar in size, the entire length and width of pedal im prints are 19 and 17 mm, while the digit group is 17 by 16 mm, re spec tively. The length of pedal dig its I–IV in creases from I to IV at tain ing 6, 8, 9 and 12 mm respectively. Digit V is not very long, at tain ing pos si bly 8–10 mm. Divarications of dig its II–IV, I–IV and I–V are 43°, 54° and 95° on av er age.
In shal low im prints only dig its I–IV are usu ally vis i ble, or even only their blunt tips. Some deeper im prints show also the sole, not dis tinctly di vided from the heel area of the foot. On some spec i mens small, sharp and dis tinct claws are pres ent.
Man ual im prints are rel a tively wide, smaller than pedal ones.
Man ual dig its I–IV are less dif fer en ti ated, 6, 8, 9, 10 mm long, from I to IV re spec tively, straight or slightly bent in ward. The whole manus im print is 15 mm long and 17 mm wide. The digit group I–IV is 14 mm long by 14 mm wide, in dis tinctly sep a - rated from the palm. Digit V, 8 mm long, is rel a tively short, rarely vis i ble, di verg ing from the I at about 93°. Divarications of dig its I–IV and II–IV at tain about 65° and 43°, re spec tively.
Both pes and manus im prints show the great est, al though not a re mark able, load on the me dial mar gin of the foot.
DISCUSSION
Spec i mens from Wambierzyce show no dif fer ences from spec i mens de scribed as Hyloidichnus arnhardti by Haubold (1973) and Fichter (1983), be ing also sim i lar (some what smaller) in size. Small dif fer ences in the in cli na tion of pedal im prints to the midline may re sult from track ir reg u lar ity.
Hyloidichnus arnhardti was found, in great num ber, but with no other ac com pa ny ing ichnospecies. There are also extramorphologic fea tures pres ent, in ter preted as the re sults of claw or digit tips drag ging on the sed i ment sur face (Fig. 2C, D, E). They are up to 25 mm long, nar row and of ten bent. Sim i lar struc tures have been found in an other rep re sen ta tive of this ichnogenus, Hyloidichnus ma jor de scribed by Gand (1987, figs. 41, 42). Hyloidichnus arnhardti is known from the Lower and Up per Autunian of Eu rope (Haubold, 1973; Haubold, 1984; Gand and Haubold, 1988).
200 Tadeusz Ptaszyñski and Grzegorz Niedüwiedzki
Fig. 1. Early Perm ian sites (Wambierzyce and T³umaczów) with ver te brate foot prints in the Intrasudetic Ba sin, SW Po land (mod i fied from Nemec, 1981)
MCKM — metasedimentary com plex of the Kaczawa Mts.; MCEKM — meta mor phic com plex of the East ern Karkonosze Mts.; KPB — Karkonosze Piedmont Ba sin; MCBOM — meta mor phic com plex of Bystrzyca/Orlica Mts.; MCLŒ — meta mor phic com plex of L¹dek/Œnie¿nik; BM — Bardo Mts.; MCK — meta mor phic com plex of K³odzko; SM — Sowie Góry Mts.; ŒD — Œwiebodzice De pres sion
New finds of vertebrate footprints from the Lower Permian of Wambierzyce 201
Fig. 2. Muz. PIG OS-220/141, Hyloidichnus arnhardti Haubold 1973 from Wambierzyce, Rotliegend, S³upiec For ma tion,
“Walchia Shale” mem ber
A, B and C— pes-manus sets (en larged from Fig. 1D and E); D and E — sur face with nu mer ous foot prints (pes-manus sets and tail marks) and in ver te brate trails; scale in centi metres
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202 Tadeusz Ptaszyñski and Grzegorz Niedüwiedzki
