Moropopus elongatus Abbassi, Alinasiri & Lucas 2017
Year: 2024
Type: other
Abstract: IchnospeciesMoropopus elongatusAbbassi, Alinasiri & Lucas, 2017 Fig. 7 D – K Materials. One footprint sampled (IFMI -685) and two footprints of a trackway studied in the field. Emended diagnosis. Tridactyl footprints with elongated digit imprints. Digit imprints are proximally narrower and distally ellipsoidal and inflated. Digit tips are completely curved without claw imprints. Metatarsus imprints include two metatarsal pads with a complete rounded back. Description. Tridactyl footprints preserved as convex hyporeliefs in lower bedding plane of the fine-grained sandstones. Sampled footprint (Fig. 7 D – F, IFMI - 685) includes circular digit imprints, lateral digits are fat with one digit pad, and middle digit (III) is incomplete. All digits connected by narrower imprint to metatarsal / metapodial imprint. The metatarsal / metapodial imprint is oval with three proximal lobes. The unsampled two footprints belong to one trackway, preserved as convex hyporelief in a lower bedding plane of thick-bedded, dark brown sandstone. This bedding plane has abundant mud crack casts that interact with the footprints. These footprints comprise one to two fat circular digital pads, which connect by narrower imprints to metatarsal / metapodial imprints. The tips of the digits are round. The proximal parts of the metatarsal / metapodial imprints are round. Discussion. Moropopus was established as monotypy from the Late Eocene of Iran (Abbassi et al. 2017), and by discovery of new Moropopus from Oligocene of Central Iran, with new morphological features, we prefer to establish a new ichnospecies for Moropopus and emended the diagnosis of Moropopus elongatus.
Institutions: University of Zanjan, Geological Survey of Iran
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6911904506
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