The data included here are the photogrammetric models that are supplemental to the following paper: Abrahams, M., Sciscio L., Reid, M., Haupt, T. & Bordy, E. M., 2020. Large tridactyl dinosaur tracks from the Early Jurassic of southern Gondwana - uppermost Elliot Formation, Upper Moyeni, Lesotho. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 90:
https://doi.org/10.14241/asgp.2020.07
Abstract: A new
ichnosite in southwest Lesotho (Upper Moyeni; Quthing District) is located within
the uppermost part of the highly fossiliferous Elliot Formation, ~ 35 m below
the conformably overlying Clarens Formation and ~ 65 m above the world-renowned
Lower Moyeni ichnosite. While the Lower Moyeni site preserves diverse Early
Jurassic ichnofossils, the ichnites at the Upper Moyeni comprise one vertebrate
burrow and ~ 50 tridactyl tracks with footprint lengths between 15 and 51 cm. Many
of the tracks preserve digital pad impressions, claw marks and displacement rims,
all related to substrate conditions. The morphometric parameters of the Upper
Moyeni tracks are consistent with Grallator,
Eubrontes and Kayentapus. Several larger tracks with footprint lengths > 40
cm are Kayentapus-like and Eubrontes-like,
and are comparable to previously described very large theropods tracks with
lengths > 50 cm from the uppermost Elliot and Clarens Formations. Based on
sedimentological and ichnological evidence, the Upper Moyeni ichnofossils were formed
in a palaeolandscape with small rivers and shallow lakes by burrowing tetrapods
and a variety of bipedal dinosaurs (theropods), some of which were up to 7–8 m
in body length. The Upper Moyeni tracks together with the other very large
tracks from coeval locations in southern Africa collectively highlight the
tendency towards increasing diversity in size of tridactyl tracks, and by
extension trackmaker body size, which runs in tandem to the increasing
diversity of non-sauropod sauropodomorph body fossils in the Sinemurian-Pliensbachian
of southern Gondwana.
Funding
This project was supported by grants to EMB (as PI) from the National Research Foundation Competitive Programme for Rated Researches and African Origins Programme (NRF GU 93544 and 98825) and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences). During the study LA, MA, MR and TH were recipients of postdoctoral and postgraduate funding, respectively, from the CoE in Palaeosciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish.