Kayentapus Welles, 1971

Niedźwiedzki, Grzegorz, 2011, A Late Triassic dinosaur-dominated ichnofauna from the Tomanová Formation of the Tatra Mountains, Central Europe, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56 (2), pp. 291-300 : 296

Ichnogenus Kayentapus Welles, 1971

Type species: Kayentapus hopii Welles, 1971 ; Moenave Road Tracksite , Arizona, USA, Kayenta Formation, Lower Jurassic .

cf. Kayentapus isp.

Fig. 4A–D .

Description.— Four specimens (field observations from Červený Ŭplaz and Czerwone Żlebki; specimens from Fig. 4B, D and one specimen collected from Červený Ŭplaz deposited at Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia; Fig. 4A and one specimen collected from Czerwone Żlebki and deposited at Tatra Mountains National Park, Zakopane, Poland; Fig. 4C ). Those tracks represent a distinguished variant of grallatorid morphology with highly divaricated, elongate digits. The first specimen of that kind ( Fig. 4A ) was found in Slovakia and described by Michalík et al. (1976) and Michalík and Kundrát (1998). According to the diagnosis based on the method of Weems (1992) and the descriptions presented by Gierliński (1994, 1996), these specimens show characters of the ichnogenus Kayentapus Welles, 1971 (see Gierliński 1996). However, poor preservation of the Polish and Slovakian specimens does not allow ichnospecies−level assignment and precise comparison with known forms of this ichnogenus (see Gierliński 1996). These footprints are also slightly similar to footprints of early ornitchishian dinosaurs such as Anomoepus Hitchcock, 1848 and Moyenisauropus Ellenberger, 1974 . However, the projection of digit III beyond the two lateral digits (II and IV) is much greater in Kayentapus than it is in ornithischian tracks (but see specimen of Anomoepus from Fig. 2D ). The angle between the digits II and III varies from 34 ° to 53 °, while the angle between the digits III and IV varies from 32 ° to 57 °.

Remarks.—Footprints of Kayentapus are known from deposits of the Norian, Hettangian, Sinemurian, and Pliensbachian of Europe and North America ( Weems 1987, 1992; Gierliński 1991, 1996; Gierliński and Ahlberg 1994; Lockley and Hunt 1995; Lockley and Meyer 2000; Gierliński et al. 2004, 2009). According to an osteological restoration presented by Gierliński and Ahlberg (1994), footprints belonging to Kayentapus were made by an Early Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian) early theropod dinosaur similar in pedal anatomy to Dilophosaurus wetherilli Welles, 1970 .

Figures

Fig. 4. Tridactyl tracks (pes prints) of small to large theropod dinosaurs. cf. Kayentapus isp. A, B. Specimens from Červený Üplaz site, Tomanová Formation (?late Norian–Rhaetian), Slovakia. C, D. Specimens from Czerwone Żlebki site, Tomanová Formation (?late Norian–Rhaetian), Poland. A. Specimen Z 14 296 housed at Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia. B, D. Specimens left in field. C. Specimen deposited at Tatra Mountains National Park, Zakopane, Poland. Photographs (A1–D1) and drawings (A2–D2). Scale bars 5 cm.

Fig. 2. Tridactyl tracks (pes prints) of possibly early ornithischian dinosaurs from the Czerwone Żlebki site, Tomanová Formation (?late Norian–Rhaetian), Poland. A, B. cf. Moyenisauropus isp. C, D. cf. Anomoepus isp. A–C. Specimens left in field. D. Specimen deposited at Tatra Mountains National Park, Zakopane, Poland. Photographs (A1–D1) and drawings (A2–D2). Scale bars 5 cm.