Dinosaur tracks in the Kokorkom Desert, Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian, Upper Cretaceous), Patagonia Argentina: Implications for deformation structures in dune fields

Abstract

The Kokorkom desert extended over an area of 826 km2 in the central-west sector of Neuquén and Río Negro provinces along the area of the backbulge basin within the Andean Foreland basin in the Neuquén Basin. Its deposits constitute the middle-upper section of the Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian) and reach approximately 130 m thick. Tracks are found on wet and dry interdune and within draa slipface deposits. They constitute biogenic deformation structures characterized by folded-up and/or brecciated sandstone levels formed under dry and/or wet substrate conditions with passive filling. The degree of preservation varies, but the identification of digit impression suggests that they were produced by theropods or iguanodontians.