First occurrence of sauropod and theropod footprints in the pre‐Campanian deposits of the Nubian Sandstone, south Eastern Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Dinosaur footprints occur in the Upper Cretaceous strata known as the Nubian Sandstone Formation in the south Eastern Desert, Egypt. The Nubian Sandstone unit is subdivided into three informal members: A lower member is marked by reddish‐brown, trough cross‐bedded, coarse‐ to medium‐grained sandstone interbedded with thin beds of varicolored mudstone, reflecting deposition in a braided fluvial system, a middle member is characterized by reddish‐white to yellow, planar cross‐bedded, medium‐grained sandstone with ferruginous siltstone intercalations, interpreted as meandering fluvial deposits, and an upper member consists of repeated coarsening‐upward cycles of rippled siltstone to fine‐ to medium‐grained sandstone and planar cross‐bedded, yellowish‐white sandstone, containing many vertebrate footprints and invertebrate trace fossils, reflecting deposition in a coastal to deltaic environment. Sixteen dinosaur footprints are recorded at the base of the upper member of the Nubian Sandstone, on inclined surfaces of rippled, fine‐grained sandstones. Twelve are overlapping each other and belong to distinct individuals of dinosaurs, the other four are distributed on a younger bedding surface. Twelve footprints are from more than one sauropod dinosaur, while three of the isolated footprints belong to a theropod dinosaur. The footprints described are semiplantigrade and digitigrade. This discovery is the second record of tetrapod footprints in Egypt and the first record of tetrapod footprints in the Eastern Desert.