Dinosaur tracks with skin impressions in the La Buitrera Paleontological Area (Candeleros Formation, Cenomanian), Río Negro Province, Argentina

APESTEGUÍA, SEBASTIÁN; DÍAZ-MARTÍNEZ, IGNACIO; MAYORAL, JOAQUÍN PÉREZ; RIGUETTI, FACUNDO; VEIGA, GONZALO D.; DE VALAIS, SILVINA; DUMONT, LUCILA FERNÁNDEZ

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (PRINT)

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2023 vol. 150

0195-6671

The La Buitrera Paleontological Area, in the north of the Río Negro Province, Argentina,preserves the uppermost section of the Cenomanian Candeleros Formation, as well as a richvertebrate fauna that inhabited the Kokorkom Desert paleo-erg. Candia Halupczok et al.(2017) reported tracks found on wet and dry interdune. New evidence from 2020 and 2022fieldtrips enabled the recognition of tracks in cross-section in non-channelized ephemeralfluvial dominated facies within the main aeolian setting located in the vicinity of the wettestrecorded area of the La Buitrera Locality: the Cañadón de las Tortugas. The cross-sectiontracks commonly identified in these facies are from 30 to 75 cm long and 20-30 cm deep.Some of them preserve thin and shallow structures in the filling of the original track wallinterpreted here as traces of the trackmaker integument. Specimens preserve two kinds of skinimpressions. The first ones are parallel, mostly oblique striations, which sometimes cross eachother at a high angle, produced by the pes during penetration and withdrawal from thesubstrate. The second ones are subrounded to polygonal, here interpreted as scale traces of thesole foot. Two clear, subtriangular to curved, and elongated, claw impressions are recorded inone track that allow us to relate it with a sauropod trackmaker.