Theropod and ornithischian dinosaur track assemblages from Middle to ?Late Jurassic deposits of the Central High Atlas, Morocco

New Middle to ?Late Jurassic dinosaur tracksites in the Central High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

“…Size including displacement rims is of the order of 1.3-1.4 m. Tracks appear as larger and smaller impressions, which may indicate manus and pes; however, they do not appear to be clearly arranged in consistent trackway patterns, primarily because of the narrow exposure of each surface, though linear relations between groups of sauropod tracks are observed (figure 4c,d). Similar sauropod tracks have already been documented in the AAK syncline [5,7,8,46], but this is the richest track horizon in terms of the number of sauropod footprints in the entire region.…”

“…Upper Jurassic) consisting of 1500 m of fluvio-lacustrine deposits. These continental deposits are quite rich in dinosaur and other vertebrate footprints ( [8] and references therein).…”

“…The formation has been attributed to the Bathonian-Callovian [38,40] on the basis of brachiopods from the upper marine beds of Imilchil Formation (underlying the Isli Formation) in the Plateau des Lacs syncline. The age of the Isli Formation has been suggested to be as young as Late Jurassic based on ichnotaxa [8]. royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Soc.…”

“…The tracks on this surface are the smallest tridactyl footprints found in the region, and even in the whole country. In this area, Klein et al [8] documented two small isolated mesaxonic pes tracks assigned to Wildeichnus ichnogenus. These tracks are larger (3.5-5.3 cm) than those described here.…”

“…Ceniceros et al [7] described two very large isolated colossal theropod footprints with lengths exceeding 70 cm. Finally, Klein et al [8] reviewed previously described footprints and documented new tracksites in beds of the Imilchil and Isli formations; those authors described new footprints that they attributed to multiple theropod ichnogenera (Carmelopodus, Wildeichnus, Changpeipus, Kayentapus, Megalosauripus, Trisauropodiscus and Grallatoridae), an ornithopod ichnogenus (small Dinehichnus?) and large ornithischian tracks (Sinoichnites).…”