Paige E. dePolo, S. Brusatte, T. Challands, D. Foffa, D. Ross, Mark Wilkinson, Hong-yu Yi
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引用次数: 11
Abstract
Middle Jurassic dinosaur fossils are exceedingly rare, but new discoveries from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, are beginning to fill this gap. We here describe a new dinosaur tracksite found in the Lealt Shale Formation (Bathonian) of the Great Estuarine Group at Rubha nam Brathairean (Brothers' Point) on Skye. The site preserves an abundance of small sauropod manus and pes prints and several isolated and broken medium-to-large tridactyl footprints. The main site occurs on a single horizon of shaley limestone that formed in a lagoonal environment. The sauropod tracks are tentatively assigned to the ichnotaxon Breviparopus due to the narrow gauge of the trackways, the digital characteristics of the pes, and the ratio of heteropody observed between the manus and the pes. A theropod trackmaker is inferred for some of the tridactyl impressions with several indicative of the ichnotaxon Eubrontes. This new site strengthens the inference, originally based on a previously discovered locality near Duntulm Castle (Duntulm Formation) in northern Skye, that sauropods habitually spent time in lagoons during the Middle Jurassic. Supplementary material: The photogrammetric model of track BP2_40 and associated metadata and photographs are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4046390
期刊介绍:
Although published only since 1965, the Scottish Journal of Geology has a long pedigree. It is the joint publication of the Geological Society of Glasgow and the Edinburgh Geological Society, which prior to 1965 published separate Transactions: from 1860 in the case of Glasgow and 1863 for Edinburgh.
Traditionally, the Journal has acted as the focus for papers on all aspects of Scottish geology and its contiguous areas, including the surrounding seas. The publication policy has always been outward looking, with the Editors encouraging review papers and papers on broader aspects of the Earth sciences that cannot be discussed solely in terms of Scottish geology.
The diverse geology of Scotland continues to provide an important natural laboratory for the study of earth sciences; many seminal studies in geology have been carried out on Scottish rocks, and over the years the results of much of this work had been published in the Journal and its predecessors.
The Journal fully deserves its high reputation worldwide and intends to maintain its status in the front rank of publications in the Earth sciences.