Canipeda longigriffa Panin and Avram, 1962

Abbassi, Nasrollah, Khoshyar, Masoumeh, Lucas, Spencer G. & Esmaeili, Farid, 2021, Extensive vertebrate tracksite from the Upper Red Formation (middle-late Miocene), west Zanjan, northwestern Iran, Fossil Record 24 (1), pp. 101-116 : 108-109

Ichnospecies Canipeda longigriffa Panin and Avram, 1962

Fig. 6

Specimens

Numerous footprints in the studied slab. The geometry of six footprints in the lower part have been studied and measured.

Diagnosis

Canipeda footprints with four oval digital pads, closely spaced with distinctive claw footprints. Footprint length / width ratio is 1.6 to 1.9, with low divarication of outer digits ( II – V) less than 30 ◦.

Discussion

At first, Canipeda was established as a monospecific C. longigriffa , which includes elongate tetradactyl footprints with long claw imprints. Its claw imprints converge in the middle digit imprints and are straight in lateral digit imprints. Based on the presence or absence of claw imprints as a distinctive diagnostic feature, some of the Bestiopeda ichnospecies were revised in the new combination ichnospecies of Canipeda by Sarjeant et al. (2002). In addition to the type ichnospecies ( C. longigriffa ), there are three valid ichnospecies of the ichnogenus Canipeda ( Melchor et al., 2019) : C. gracilis ( Vialov, 1965) , C. sanguinolenta ( Vialov, 1965) and C. therates ( Remeika, 1999) .

Canipeda gracilis is known as having larger manus than pes imprints and a footprint length / width ratio between 1.0 and 1.3, less than in C. longigriffa . The ichnospecies C. sanguinolenta (= Bestiopeda sanguinolenta Vialov, 1966 ) has relatively large, tetradactyl carnivore footprints with tapered digit imprints. C. therates is a small-sized footprint with small metatarsal pad imprints.

Hyaena footprints differ from canid footprints by their larger and closer digit imprints ( Abi-Said and Abi-Said, 2007). Iliopoulos et al. (2012) reported tetradactyl footprints with large claw imprints from the late Miocene of Crete ( Greece) that might be referred to a large-sized hyaena.

Anton et al. (2004), however, believe that assigning C. longigriffa to Canidae is incorrect because of the large size of the interdigital pad relative to the toe pads, as well as the detailed morphology of the interdigital pad. They attributed C. longigriffa to a herpestid (mongoose). To assess this idea requires the reexamination of the holotype of C. longigriffa , which is lost, so only its photo is available.

N. Abbassi et al.: Extensive vertebrate tracksite from the Upper Red Formation (middle–late Miocene) 109

Figures

Figure 6. (a–b) Ichnospecies Canipeda longigriffa photographed in the lower part of the slab of the tracksite, preserved as convex hyporelief. Scales in centimeters (cm).