Deltapodus

Deltapodus Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Holotype trackway of D. ibiricus including hand and footprints
Trace fossil classification
Ichnogenus:	†Deltapodus Whyte & Romano, 1994
Type ichnospecies
†Deltapodus brodricki Whyte & Romano, 1994
Other species
†Deltapodus curriei Xing et al., 2013[1] †Deltapodus ibericus Cobos et al., 2010[2]

Deltapodus is an ichnogenus of stegosaurian dinosaur footprint. Three ichnospecies have been described in the genus: Deltapodus brodricki from England and the United States, Deltapodus ibericus from Spain and Portugal, and Deltapodus curriei from China. Other tracks referable to the genus but not assignable to a species are also known.

The type species, D. brodricki, is known from the Saltwick Formation of England and the Morrison Formation of the United States.^[3][4] D. curriei is known from the Tugulu Group of China, and may represent the tracks of the stegosaur genus Wuerhosaurus.^[5] D. ibericus is known from the Lourinhã Formation of Portugal and the Villar del Arzobispo Formation of Spain.^[6][7] Tracks of indeterminate Deltapodus species are known from the Lameta Formation of India and the Iouaridène Formation of Morocco.^[8][9]

The stegosaur Dacentrurus and the possible variation in heel pad size based on D. ibiricus tracks

See also

• Stegopodus
• List of dinosaur ichnogenera

References

1. Xing, Lida; Lockley, Martin G.; McCrea, Richard T.; Gierliński, Gerard D.; Buckley, Lisa G.; Zhang, Jianping; Qi, Liqi; Jia, Chengkai (May 2013). "First record of Deltapodus tracks from the Early Cretaceous of China". Cretaceous Research. 42: 55–65. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2013.01.006.
2. Cobos, Alberto; Royo-Torres, Rafael; Luque, Luis; Alcalá, Luis; Mampel, Luis (July 2010). "An Iberian stegosaurs paradise: The Villar del Arzobispo Formation (Tithonian–Berriasian) in Teruel (Spain)". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 293 (1–2): 223–236. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.024.
3. Whyte, Martin A.; Romano, Michael (January 2001). "Probable stegosaurian dinosaur tracks from the Saltwick Formation (Middle Jurassic) of Yorkshire, England". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 112 (1): 45–54. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(01)80047-X.
4. King, M. Ryan; Mehew, Spenser C.; Foster, John R.; Mims, Alison L.; Frost, Forest L.; Tweet, Justin S.; Santucci, Vincent L. (2024). "Probable stegosaur tracks (Deltapodus) from the Jurassic Morrison Formation, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado" (PDF). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. Vertebrate Paleoichnology: A Tribute to Martin Lockley.
5. Xing, Lida; Lockley, Martin G.; Persons, W. Scott; Klein, Hendrik; Romilio, Anthony; Wang, Donghao; Wang, Miaoyan (2021-02-28). "Stegosaur Track Assemblage from Xinjiang, China, Featuring the Smallest Known Stegosaur Record". PALAIOS. 36 (2): 68–76. Bibcode:2021Palai..36...68X. doi:10.2110/palo.2020.036. ISSN 0883-1351. S2CID 233129489.
6. Mateus, Octávio; Milàn, Jesper; Romano, Michael; Whyte, Martin A. (September 2011). "New finds of stegosaur tracks from the Upper Jurassic Lourinhã Formation, Portugal". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56 (3): 651–658. doi:10.4202/app.2009.0055.
7. Castanera, Diego; Mampel, Luis; Cobos, Alberto (July 3, 2024). "The complexity of tracking stegosaurs and their gregarious behavior". Scientific Reports. 14 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-024-64298-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 11222438. PMID 38961126.
8. Peter M. Galton; Krishnan Ayyasami (2017). "Purported latest bone of a plated dinosaur (Ornithischia: Stegosauria), a "dermal plate" from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of southern India". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 285 (1): 91–96. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2017/0671.
9. Belvedere, M.; Mietto, P. (2010). "First evidence of stegosaurian Deltapodus footprints in North Africa (Iouaridène Formation, Upper Jurassic, Morocco)". Palaeontology. 53 (1): 233–240. Bibcode:2010Palgy..53..233B. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00928.x. S2CID 140670546.

Further reading

• Glut, Donald F. (2003). "Appendix: Dinosaur Tracks and Eggs". Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia. 3rd Supplement. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 613–652. ISBN 978-0-7864-1166-5.