IIPG   25805
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACION EN PALEOBIOLOGIA Y GEOLOGIA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
First bird footprints from the lower Miocene Lerín Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain
Autor/es:
IGNACIO DÍAZ MARTÍNEZ; OIER SUÁREZ-HERNANDO; BLANCA MARTÍNEZ-GARCÍA; JUAN CRUZ LARRASOAÑA; XABIER MURELAGA
Revista:
PALAEONTOLOGIA ELECTRONICA
Editorial:
COQUINA PRESS
Referencias:
Lugar: New York; Año: 2016 vol. 19 p. 1 - 15
ISSN:
1094-8074
Resumen:
A new tracksite with bird footprints, found in the Bardenas Reales de Navarra NaturalPark (Navarre, Spain), is presented in this study. The footprints are preserved infour sandstone blocks of the Lerín Formation from the northwest sector of the EbroBasin. According to the magnetostratigraphic data, the age of these blocks is 20.4 Ma(Agenian, lower Miocene). The footprints are more than 100 mm in length, mesaxonic,and tridactyl, and have a prominent central pad impression with the digit impressionsnot jointed proximally. These features allow classifying them as Uvaichnites riojana.Some of the studied footprints are better preserved than the type series of Uvaichnites,which were found also in the northwest sector of the Ebro Basin. Therefore, the originaldiagnosis has been emended. Available chronostratigraphic data for these localities aswell as for other footprints from China indicate a latest Oligocene-earliest Miocene age(from about 23 to 20 Ma) for Uvaichnites-like footprints. Sedimentological data alsoindicate similar continental environments, namely perilacustrine deltaic systems anddistal alluvial systems. The information about early Miocene avian remains (bones,eggs and footprints) in the Iberian Peninsula is scarce. The skeletal and oologicalrecord of this age has been included within the families Phoenicopteridae, Phaisanidaeand Cathartidae (or incertae sedis), while the ichnological record was related withtrackmakers belonging to Charadriiformes, Ardeidae and Gruidae taxa. For this scenario,in which there are few avian remains, the ichnological diversity shown in thispaper complements and improves the knowledge about the Iberian avian diversity inthe early Miocene.