title: The latest succession of dinosaur tracksites in Europe: Hadrosaur ichnology, track production and palaeoenvironments.
abstract: A comprehensive review and study of the rich dinosaur track record of the Tremp Formation in the southern Pyrenees of Spain (Southwestern Europe) shows a unique succession of footprint localities prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event. A description of some 30 new tracksites and data on sedimentary environments, track occurrence and preservation, ichnology and chronostratigraphy are provided. These new track localities represent various facies types within a diverse set of fluvial environments. The footprint discoveries mostly represent hadrosaurian and, less abundantly, to sauropod dinosaurs. The hadrosaur tracks are significantly smaller in size than, but morphologically similar to, those of North America and Asia and are attributable to the ichnogenus Hadrosauropodus. The track succession, with more than 40 distinct track levels, indicates that hadrosaur footprints in the Ibero-Armorican region occur predominantly in the late Maaastrichtian (at least above the early Maastrichtian-late Maastrichtian boundary). The highest abundance is found noticeably found in the late Maastrichtian, with tracks occurring in the C29r magnetochron, within about the latest 300,000 years of the Cretaceous.
authors.affiliation: Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain ; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Bernat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.forename: Oriol
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Oms
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fondevilla
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gaete
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galobart
authors.forename: Violeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Riera
authors.forename: José Ignacio
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Canudo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D025061:Dinosaurs; D005060:Europe; D010163:Paleontology
references.citation: Naturwissenschaften. 2009 Apr;96(4):495-501
references.pmid: 19089398
references.citation: Science. 2010 Mar 5;327(5970):1214-8
references.pmid: 20203042
references.citation: Nat Commun. 2012 May 01;3:804
references.pmid: 22549833
references.citation: Science. 2013 Feb 8;339(6120):684-7
references.pmid: 23393261