The collection and dissemination of vertebrate ichnological data is struggling to keep up with techniques that are becoming commonplace in the wider palaeontological field. A standard protocol is required to ensure that data is recorded, presented and archived in a manner that will be useful both to contemporary researchers, and to future generations. Primarily, our aim is to make the 3D capture of ichnological data standard practice, and to provide guidance on how such 3D data can be communicated effectively (both via the literature and other means) and archived openly and in perpetuity. We recommend capture of 3D data, and the presentation of said data in the form of photographs, false‐colour images, and interpretive drawings. Raw data (3D models of traces) should always be provided in a form usable by other researchers (i.e. in an open format). If adopted by the field as a whole, the result will be a more robust and uniform literature, supplemented by unparalleled availability of datasets for future workers.
The upper Stormberg Group (Elliot and Clarens formations) of the main Karoo Basin is well-known for its fossil vertebrate fauna, comprising early branching members of lineages including mammals, dinosaurs, and testudinates. Despite 150 years of scientific study, the upper Stormberg Group lacks radioisotopic age constraints and remains coarsely dated via imprecise faunal correlations. Here we synthesise previous litho-and magnetostratigraphic studies, and present a comprehensive biostratigraphic review of upper Stormberg fauna. We also present the results of the first geochronological assessment of the unit across the basin, using U-Pb dates derived from detrital zircons obtained from tuffaceous sandstones and siltstones, the youngest of which are considered maximum depositional ages. Our results confirm that the Elliot Formation contains the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, making it one of the few fossiliferous continental units that records the effects of the end-Triassic Mass Extinction event. Our work suggests a mid-Norian-Rhaetian age for the lower Elliot Formation and a Hettangian-Sinemurian age for the upper Elliot Formation, although the precise stratigraphic position of the Triassic/Jurassic (Rhaetian/Hettangian) boundary remains somewhat uncertain. A mainly Pliensbachian age is obtained for the Clarens Formation. The new dates allow direct comparison with better-calibrated Triassic-Jurassic faunas of the Western Hemisphere (e.g., Chinle and Los Colorados formations). We show that sauropodomorph, but not ornithischian or theropod, dinosaurs were well-established in the main Karoo Basin ~220 million years ago, and that typical Norian faunas (e.g., aetosaurs, phytosaurs) are either rare or absent in the lower Elliot Formation, which is paucispecific compared to the upper Elliot. While this is unlikely the result of geographic sampling biases, it could be from historical sampling intensity differences.
The latest Triassic is notable for coinciding with the dramatic decline of many previously dominant groups, followed by the rapid radiation of Dinosauria in the Early
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