New ichnological record from the Late Campanian Toro Toro Formation at Toro Toro, Potosí (Bolivia): first probable dromaeosaurid tracks from South America.

APESTEGUIA, S.; SILVINA DE VALAIS; RÍOS CORDERO, GIOVANNI; MEDINA RAMÍREZ, OMAR

AMEGHINIANA

ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2011 vol. 48 p. 662 - 667

0002-7014

Toro Toro tracksite has revealed a diverse and abundant assemblage of dinosaur tracks in Uppermost Cretaceous sandstones of the Toro Toro Formation (Potosí, Bolivia). Some of the reported tracks, assigned herein as Dromaeopodus? isp., are large and display the impression of the digit II, which is reduced in length and bears a wide distal pad. The morphology of the footprints is clearly theropodian, and the short inner digit imprint suggests the trackmaker was a Dromaeosauridae. Recent works suggest that unenlagines, a vicariant group of dromaeosaurids that reached large sizes during Late Campanian times, may have resulted in a relatively wide record in southern continents. The trackmaker may belong to a member of this recently recognized radiation of southern dromaeosaurids.