Continental Ichnofacies Models: The Role of Tetrapod Tracks

Abstract

Traditionally focused on invertebrate trace fossils, the ichnofacies model provides a conceptual context to understand the paleoenvironmental significance of trace fossils. Recently it has been expanded to include tetrapod footprints and five archetypal tetrapod ichnofacies were defined for continental and coastal-plain environments. However, controlling environmental parameters that affect ichnofacies distribution have not been discussed. An integrative perspective was employed to tackle this problem, taking into account depositional environments, as well as vertebrate and invertebrate trace fossils. The analyzed data were focused on arid to semiarid environments recorded from Permian to Pleistocene deposits. As a result, the distribution of tetrapod footprints and invertebrate trace fossils does not seem to be controlled by the same paleoenvironmental factors. While local environmental parameters are involved in the distribution of invertebrate trace fossils, the distribution of tetrapod trace fossils in terrestrial environments seems to be more related to key environmental regional-scale parameters, such as climate and resource availability.