Sauropod tracks from Mongolia with well preserved soft tissue details (free pdf)
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Ben Creisler
Jul 17, 2025, 12:43:40 PM7/17/25
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Ben Creisler
A new paper:
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Free pdf:
Phil R Bell, D Cary Woodruff, Khoi Nguyen, Buuvei Mainbayar & Philip J Currie (2025)
Remarkable soft tissue anatomy recorded in titanosaur (Sauropoda) tracks from the latest Cretaceous of Mongolia
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204(3): zlaf053
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf053
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/204/3/zlaf053/8205517
Dinosaur footprints can provide important palaeobiological information, including the speed, behaviour, limb kinematics, and soft tissue anatomy of the trackmaker. Here we report on a collection of well-preserved natural track casts made by sauropods from the Nemegt locality (latest Cretaceous) in southern Mongolia. These casts of isolated mani and pedes preserve exceptional details of the soft tissues including the ungual and fleshy cuticle of pedal digits I and II; regional changes in scale size across the pes, and peculiar spur-like scales on the lateral, posterior, and palmar surfaces of the mani. These tracks show that the large pedal unguals were largely encased in squamous soft tissues and that only a small portion of the claw protruded beyond the cuticle. These findings imply that pedal digit range of motion would have been reduced compared to traditional bone-on-bone estimates, although scratch digging remains a tenable hypothesis for pedal digit function. Fleshy pads on the pes and spur-like scales on the manus may have been adaptations to deal with the sandy substrates of the Nemegt ecosystem, although other explanations cannot be excluded. These discoveries provide novel insights into the soft tissue anatomy and potential function of the mani and pedes of the Nemegt sauropods.
Phil R Bell, D Cary Woodruff, Khoi Nguyen, Buuvei Mainbayar & Philip J Currie (2025)
Remarkable soft tissue anatomy recorded in titanosaur (Sauropoda) tracks from the latest Cretaceous of Mongolia
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204(3): zlaf053
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf053
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/204/3/zlaf053/8205517
Dinosaur footprints can provide important palaeobiological information, including the speed, behaviour, limb kinematics, and soft tissue anatomy of the trackmaker. Here we report on a collection of well-preserved natural track casts made by sauropods from the Nemegt locality (latest Cretaceous) in southern Mongolia. These casts of isolated mani and pedes preserve exceptional details of the soft tissues including the ungual and fleshy cuticle of pedal digits I and II; regional changes in scale size across the pes, and peculiar spur-like scales on the lateral, posterior, and palmar surfaces of the mani. These tracks show that the large pedal unguals were largely encased in squamous soft tissues and that only a small portion of the claw protruded beyond the cuticle. These findings imply that pedal digit range of motion would have been reduced compared to traditional bone-on-bone estimates, although scratch digging remains a tenable hypothesis for pedal digit function. Fleshy pads on the pes and spur-like scales on the manus may have been adaptations to deal with the sandy substrates of the Nemegt ecosystem, although other explanations cannot be excluded. These discoveries provide novel insights into the soft tissue anatomy and potential function of the mani and pedes of the Nemegt sauropods.
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