Article: First record of footprints of terrestrial vertebrates from the Upper Permian of the Cis-Urals, Russia

The first tetrapod footprints from the Upper Permian of Russia are identified as Anthichnium ichnosp., on the basis of a short track from the Severodvinskian Gorizont (upper Tatarian, uppermost Permian) of Kulchomovo, 75 km east-north-east of Orenburg, southern Pre-Urals basin. The footprints are preserved in a ripple-marked sandstone unit, and appear to show an animal swimming, then crawling through wet marginal sediment, and finally moving on to firmer substrate. The sedimentary setting is an enclosed semi-arid foreland basin, close to high mountains. An ephemeral stream-playa lake complex developed, with long emergent periods and short episodes of flooding and stream development. The footprints were probably produced by a small temnospondyl amphibian with four fingers and five toes.