Skip to content Skip to navigation

Article: Oldest known avian footprints from Australia: Eumeralla Formation (Albian), Dinosaur Cove, Victoria

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 57
Part: 1
Publication Date: January 2014
Page(s): 7 – 19
Author(s): Anthony J. Martin, Patricia Vickers-Rich, Thomas H. Rich and Michael Hall
Addition Information

How to Cite

MARTIN, A. J., VICKERS-RICH, P., RICH, T. H., HALL, M. 2014. Oldest known avian footprints from Australia: Eumeralla Formation (Albian), Dinosaur Cove, Victoria. Palaeontology, 57, 1, 7–19, doi: 10.1111/pala.12082

Author Information

  • Anthony J.  Martin - Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA (email: geoam@learnlink.emory.edu)
  • Anthony J.  Martin - School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
  • Patricia  Vickers-Rich - School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia (email: pat.rich@monash.edu)
  • Thomas H.  Rich - Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (email: trich@museum.vic.gov.au)
  • Michael  Hall - School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia (email: mike.hall@monash.edu)

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 6 JAN 2014
  • Article first published online: 25 OCT 2013
  • Manuscript Accepted: 1 OCT 2013
  • Manuscript Received: 24 APR 2013

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library (Free Access)
Get Article: Wiley Online Library [Free Access]

References

  • Barrett, P. M., Benson, R. B. J., Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2011. First spinosaurid dinosaur from Australia and the cosmopolitanism of Cretaceous dinosaur faunas. Biology Letters, 7, 933–936.
  • Benson, R. B. J., Barrett, P. M., Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2010. A southern tyrant reptile. Science, 327, 1613.
  • Benson, R. B. J., Rich, T. H., Vickers-Rich, P. and Hall, M. 2012. Theropod fauna from Southern Australia indicates high polar diversity and climate-driven dinosaur provinciality. PLoS ONE, 7 (5), e37122.
  • Bryan, S. E., Constantine, A. E., Stephens, C. J., Ewart, A., Schön, R. W. and Parianos, J. 1997. Early Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary successions along the eastern Australian continental margin: implications for the break-up of eastern Gondwana. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 153, 85–102.
  • Buatois, L. A. and Mángano, G. M. 2007. Invertebrate ichnology of continental freshwater environments. 285–323. In Miller, W.M., III (ed.) Trace fossils: concepts, problems, prospects. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 611 pp.
  • Chiappe, L. M. and Dyke, G. J. 2006. The early evolutionary history of birds. Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea, 22, 133–151.
  • Close, R. A., Vickers-Rich, P., Trusler, P., Chiappe, L. M., O'connor, J., Rich, T. H., Kool, L. and Komarower, P. 2009. Earliest Gondwanan bird from the Cretaceous of southeastern Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29, 616–619.
  • Currie, P. 1981. Bird footprints from the Gething Formation (Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1, 257–264.
  • Currie, P., Vickers-Rich, P. and Rich, T. H. 1996. Possible oviraptorosaur (Theropoda, Dinosauria) specimens from the Early Cretaceous Otway Group of Dinosaur Cove, Victoria. Alcheringa, 20, 73–79.
  • de Valais, S. and Melchor, R. N. 2008. Ichnotaxonomy of bird-like footprints: an example from the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic of northwest Argentina. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28, 145–159.
  • Elbroch, M. and Marks, E. 2001. Bird tracks and sign: a guide to North American species. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 456 pp.
  • Ellenberger, P. 1972. Contribution ‘a la classification des pistes de vertébrés du Trias: les types du Stormberg d'Afrique du Sud (I). Palaeovertebrata, Mémoire Extraordinaire, 111 pp.
  • Ellenberger, P. 1974. Contribution ‘a la classification des pistes de vertébrés du Trias: les types du Stormberg d'Afrique du Sud (IIe‘me partie: le Stormberg Superieur -I. Le biome de la zone B/1 ou niveau de Moyeni: ses biocénoses). Palaeovertebrata, Mémoire Extraordinaire, 143 pp.
  • Falk, A. R. 2009. Interpreting behavior from Early Cretaceous bird tracks and the morphology of bird feet and trackways. Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 140 pp.
  • Falk, A. R. 2011. Tracking Mesozoic birds across the world. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 9, 85–90.
  • Falk, A. R., Hasiotis, S. T. and Martin, L. D. 2010. Feeding traces associated with bird tracks from the Lower Cretaceous Haman Formation, Republic of Korea. Palaios, 25, 730–741.
  • Falk, A. R., Martin, L. D. and Hasiotis, S. T. 2011. A morphologic criterion to distinguish bird tracks. Journal of Ornithology, 152, 701–716.
  • Falkingham, P.L., Margetts, L., Smith, I.A. and Manning, P.L. 2009. Reinterpretation of palmate and semi-palmate (webbed) fossil tracks; insights from finite element modeling. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 271, 69–76.
  • Gatesy, S. M. 2003. Direct and indirect track features: what sediment did a dinosaur touch? Ichnos, 10, 91–98.
  • Gatesy, S. M., Middleton, K. M., Jenkins, F. A. and Shubin, N. H. 1999. Three-dimensional preservation of foot movements in Triassic theropod dinosaurs. Nature, 399, 141–144.
  • Genise, J. F., Melchor, R. N., Archangelsky, M., Bala, L. O., Straneck, R. and de Valais, S. 2009. Application of neoichnological studies to behavioural and taphonomic interpretation of fossil bird-like tracks from lacustrine settings: the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic? Santo Domingo Formation, Argentina. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 272, 143–161.
  • Graversen, O., Milán, J. and Loope, D. B. 2007. Dinosaur tectonics: a structural analysis of theropod undertracks with a reconstruction of theropod walking dynamics. Journal of Geology, 115, 641–654.
  • Henderson, D. M. 2003. Footprints, trackways, and hip heights of bipedal dinosaurs: testing hip height predictions with computer models. Ichnos, 10, 99–114.
  • Jackson, S. J., Whyte, M. A. and Romano, M. 2010. Range of experimental dinosaur (Hypsilophodon foxii) footprints due to variation in sand consistency: how wet was the track? Ichnos, 17, 197–214.
  • Kim, J. Y., Kim, S. H., Kim, K. S. and Lockley, M. G. 2006. The oldest record of webbed bird and pterosaur tracks from South Korea (Cretaceous Haman Formation, Changseon and Sinsu Islands): more evidence of high avian diversity in East Asia. Cretaceous Research, 27, 56–69.
  • Kim, J. Y., Lockley, M. G., Seo, S. J., Kim, K. S., Kim, S. H. and Baek, K. S. 2012. A paradise of Mesozoic birds: the world's richest and most diverse Cretaceous bird track assemblage from the Early Cretaceous Haman Formation of the Gajin Tracksite, Jinju, Korea. Ichnos, 19, 28–42.
  • Kurochkin, E. N. and Molnar, R. E. 1997. New material of enantiornithine birds from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. Alcheringa, 21, 291–297.
  • Leonardi, G. (ed.) 1987. Glossary and manual of tetrapod footprint palaeoichnology. Ministério das Minas e Energia, Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Brasil, 75 pp.
  • Lim, J-D., Zhou, Z., Martin, L. D., Baek, K. S. and Yang, S. Y. 2000. The oldest known tracks of web-footed birds from the Lower Cretaceous of South Korea. Naturwissenschaften, 87, 256–259.
  • Lockley, M. G. 2009. New perspectives on morphological variation in tridactyl footprints: clues to widespread convergence in developmental dynamics. Geological Quarterly, 53, 415–432.
  • Lockley, M. G., Yang, S. Y., Matsukawa, M., Fleming, F. and Lim, S. K. 1992. The track record of Mesozoic birds: evidence and implications. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 336, 113–134.
  • Lockley, M. G., Janke, P. and Theisen, L. 2001. First reports of bird and ornithopod trackways from the Lakota Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Black Hills, South Dakota. 443–452. In Tanke, D. H. and Carpenter, K. (eds). Mesozoic vertebrate life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 352 pp.
  • Lockley, M. G., Chin, K., Houck, K., Matsukawa, M. and Kukihara, K. 2009. New interpretations of Ignotornis, the first-reported Mesozoic avian footprints: implications for the paleoecology and behavior of an enigmatic Cretaceous bird. Cretaceous Research, 30, 1041–1061.
  • Lockley, M. G., Lim, J.-D., Kim, J. Y., Kim, K. S., Huh, M. and Hwang, K.-G. 2012. Tracking Korea's early birds: a review of Cretaceous avian ichnology and its implications for evolution and behavior. Ichnos, 19, 17–27.
  • Martin, A. J. 2009. Neoichnology of an Arctic fluvial point bar, North Slope, Alaska. Geological Quarterly, 53, 383–396.
  • Martin, A. J. 2013. Life traces of the Georgia coast: revealing the unseen lives of plants and animals. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 692 pp.
  • Martin, A. J., Vickers-Rich, P., Rich, T. H. and Kool, L. 2007. Polar dinosaur tracks in the Cretaceous of Australia: though many were cold, few were frozen. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 27 (Suppl. 3), 112A.
  • Martin, A. J., Rich, T. H., Poore, G. B. C., Schultz, M. B., Austin, C. M., Kool, L. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2008. Fossil evidence from Australia for oldest known freshwater crayfish in Gondwana. Gondwana Research, 14, 287–296.
  • Martin, A. J., Rich, T. H., Hall, M., Vickers-Rich, P. and Vazquez-Prokopec, G. 2012. A polar dinosaur-track assemblage from the Eumeralla Formation (Albian), Victoria, Australia. Alcheringa, 36, 171–188.
  • Mateus, O. and Milán, J. 2010. A diverse Upper Jurassic dinosaur ichnofauna from central-west Portugal. Lethaia, 43, 245–257.
  • Matsukawa, M., Lockley, M. G. and Jianju, L. 2006. Cretaceous terrestrial biotas of East Asia, with special reference to dinosaur-dominated ichnofaunas: towards a synthesis. Cretaceous Research, 27, 3–21.
  • McCrea, R. T. and Sarjeant, W. A. S. 2001. New ichnotaxa of bird and mammal footprints from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Gates Formation of Alberta. 453–478. In Tanke, D.H., Carpenter, K. and Skrepnick, M.W. (eds). Mesozoic vertebrate life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 600 pp.
  • Melchor, R. N., de Valais, S. and Genise, J. F. 2002. The oldest bird-like fossil footprints. Nature, 417, 936–938.
  • Melchor, R. N., Buchwaldt, R. and Bowring, S. 2013. A Late Eocene date for Late Triassic bird tracks. Nature, 495, E1–E2.
  • Milán, J. and Bromley, R. G. 2006. True tracks, undertracks and eroded tracks, experimental work with tetrapod tracks in laboratory and field. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 231, 253–264.
  • Miller, J. M., Norvick, M. S. and Wilson, C. J. L. 2002. Basement controls on rifting and the associated formation of ocean transform faults: cretaceous continental extension of the southern margin of Australia. Tectonophysics, 359, 131–155.
  • Molnar, R. E. 1986. An enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia. Nature, 322, 736–738.
  • Molnar, R. E. 1999. Avian tibiotarsi from the Early Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. 197–209. In Tomida, Y., Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. (eds). Proceedings of the second Gondwanan dinosaur symposium, National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 296 pp.
  • Molnar, R. E., Flannery, T. and Rich, T. H. 1981. An allosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia. Alcheringa, 5, 141–146.
  • Müller, A. H. 1962, Zur ichnologie, taxiologie und ökologie fossiler tiere, Teil 1. Freiberger Forschungsheft, 151, 5–49.
  • Norell, M. A. and Xu, X. 2005. Feathered dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 33, 277–299.
  • Reineck, H.-E. 1981. Lebensspur of a bird starting to fly in snow on the German–Austrian border. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 51, 699.
  • Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 1994. Neoceratopsians and ornithomimosaurs: dinosaurs of Gondwanan origin? National Geographic Research and Exploration, 10, 129–131.
  • Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 1999. The Hypsilophodontidae from southeastern Australia. 167–180. In Tomida, Y., Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. (eds). Proceedings of the second Gondwanan dinosaur symposium, National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 296 pp.
  • Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2000. Dinosaurs of darkness. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 222 pp.
  • Rich, T. H. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2003. A century of Australian dinosaurs. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia, 124 pp.
  • Rich, P. V., Rich, T. H., Wagstaff, B. E., McEwen-Mason, J., Douthitt, C. B., Gregory, R. T. and Felton, E. A. 1988. Evidence for low temperatures and biologic diversity in Cretaceous high latitudes of Australia. Science, 242, 1403–1406.
  • Rich, T. H., Vickers-Rich, P. and Gangloff, R. A. 2002. Polar dinosaurs. Science, 295, 979–980.
  • Rich, T. H., Galton, P. M. and Vickers-Rich, P. 2010. The holotype individual of the ornithopod dinosaur Leaellynasaura amicagraphica Rich & Rich, 1989 (late Early Cretaceous, Victoria, Australia). Alcheringa, 34, 385–396.
  • Scott, J. J., Renaut, R. W. and Owen, R. B.. 2012. Impacts of flamingos on saline lake margin and shallow lacustrine sediments in the Kenya Rift Valley. Sedimentary Geology, 277–278, 32–51.
  • Sternberg, C. M. 1932. Dinosaur tracks from Peace River, British Columbia. National Museum of Canada Bulletin, 68, 59–85.
  • Stow, D. A. V. 2006. Sedimentary rocks in the field. Manson Publishing, London, 320 pp.
  • Tosolini, A.-M. P., McLoughlin, S. and Drinnan, A. N. 1999. Stratigraphy and fluvial sedimentary facies of the Neocomian lower Strzelecki Group, Gippsland Basin, Victoria. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 46, 951–970.
  • Veevers, J. J. 2006. Updated Gondwana (Permian–Cretaceous) earth history of Australia. Gondwana Research, 9, 231–260.
  • Veevers, J. J., Powell, C. M. and Roots, S. B. 1991. Review of seafloor spreading around Australia, I. Synthesis of the patterns of spreading. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 38, 373–389.
  • Wright, J. L. 2006. Bird-like features of dinosaur footprints. 176–184. In Currie, P. J., Koppelhus, E. B., Shugar, M. A. and Wright, J. L. (eds). Feathered dragons: studies on the transition from dinosaurs to birds. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 361 pp.
  • Xu, X., Zheng, X. and You, H. 2009. A new feather type in a nonavian theropod and the early evolution of feathers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 832–834.
  • Xu, X. 2010. Exceptional dinosaur fossils show ontogenetic development of early feathers. Nature, 464, 1338–1341.
  • Xu, X., You, H., Du, K. and Han, F. 2011. An Archaeopteryx-like theropod from China and the origin of Aviale. Nature, 475, 465–470.
  • Yang, S. Y., Lokley, M. G., Greben, R., Erickson, B. R. and Lim, S. K. 1995. Flamingo and duck-like bird tracks from the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary: evidence and implication. Ichnos, 4, 21–34.
  • Zelenitsky, D. K., Therrien, F., Erickson, G. M., Debuhr, C. L., Kobayashi, Y., Eberth, D. A. and Hadfield, F. 2012. Feathered non-avian dinosaurs from North America provide insight into wing origins. Science, 338, 510–514.
  • Zhou, Z. H. and Zhang, F. C. 2007. Mesozoic birds of China: a synoptic review. Frontiers of Biology in China, 2, 1–14.
PalAss Go! URL: http://go.palass.org/5ms | Twitter: Share on Twitter | Facebook: Share on Facebook | Google+: Share on Google+