Pes shape variation in an ornithopod dinosaur trackway (Lower Cretaceous, NW Spain): New evidence of an antalgic gait in the fossil track record

NOVELLA RAZZOLINI; BERNAT VILA; IGNACIO DÍAZ MARTÍNEZ; PHILLIP L MANNING; ANGEL GALOBART

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (PRINT)

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 58 p. 125 - 134

0195-6671

Trackways can provide unique insight to animals locomotion through quantitative analysis of variation intrack morphology. Long trackways additionally permit the study of trackmaker foot anatomy, providingmore insight on limb kinematics. In this paper we have restudied the extensive tracksite at Barranco deLa Canal-1 (Lower Cretaceous, La Rioja, NW Spain) focussing on a 25-m-long dinosaur (ornithopod)trackway that was noted by an earlier study (Casanovas et al., 1995; Perez-Lorente, 2003) to display anirregular pace pattern. This asymmetric gait has been quantified and photogrammetric models undertakenfor each track, thus revealing distinct differences between the right and the left tracks, particularlyin the relative position of the lateral digits IIeIV with respect to the central digit III. Given that thesubstrate at this site is homogenous, the consistent repetition of the collected morphological data suggeststhat differences recorded between the right and the left tracks can be linked to the foot anatomy,but more interestingly, to an injury or pathology on left digit II. We suggest that the abnormal conditionregistered in digit II impression of the left pes can be linked to the statistically significant limpingbehaviour of the trackmaker. Furthermore, the abnormal condition registered did not affect the dinosaur´sspeed.