Large caviomorph rodent footprints of the Late Oligocene Vinchina Formation, Argentina

VERÓNICA KRAPOVICKAS; NORMA NASIF

PALAEONTOLOGIA ELECTRONICA

COQUINA PRESS

Lugar: California; Año: 2011 vol. 14 p. 1 - 13

1094-8074

Footprints and trackways provide valuable information about trackmaker behaviour,locomotion, spatial and temporal distribution, among others. Here we describe tetradactylmammalian footprints and trackways recorded in Late Oligocene meanderingfluvial deposits of the Vinchina Formation (Oligocene - Early Miocene). The morphologicalanalysis of the footprints suggests that they were produced most likely by dinomyidcaviomorph rodents or a close relative. The footprints, unlike any previously recorded,are designated to a new ichnospecies, Tacheria troyana. The occurrence of these footprintspotentially extends the temporal record of dinomyids in Argentina to the Late Oligocene.