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Heron-like tracks from Cretaceous Dunvegan Formation, British Columbia
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Ben Creisler
Mar 15, 2025, 12:59:14 AMMar 15
to DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com
Ben Creisler
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A new paper:
Martin G. Lockley, A. Guy Plint & Charles W. Helm (2025)
Heron-like tracks from the Dunvegan Formation (Cenomanian), British Columbia: evidence for convergence in avian foot morphology
Historical Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2477201
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2025.2477201
A single trackway of the heron-like ichnogenus Ardeipeda sp. is described from alluvial plain sediments of the Cretaceous (middle Cenomanian; 96–97 Ma) Dunvegan Formation, British Columbia. This is both the largest avian footprint known from the Cretaceous, and the oldest (by >45 myr), report of the ichnogenus Ardeipeda. It cannot be proved or disproved that the trackmaker represented the extant heron family (Ardeidae); no body fossils of the family are known before the early Oligocene. Thus, it is inferred that the trackmaker was ecologically, rather than biotaxonomically, convergent with modern herons. This conclusion is consistent with growing evidence of convergence between Cretaceous, Cenozoic and extant avian track morphologies.
Heron-like tracks from the Dunvegan Formation (Cenomanian), British Columbia: evidence for convergence in avian foot morphology
Historical Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2477201
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2025.2477201
A single trackway of the heron-like ichnogenus Ardeipeda sp. is described from alluvial plain sediments of the Cretaceous (middle Cenomanian; 96–97 Ma) Dunvegan Formation, British Columbia. This is both the largest avian footprint known from the Cretaceous, and the oldest (by >45 myr), report of the ichnogenus Ardeipeda. It cannot be proved or disproved that the trackmaker represented the extant heron family (Ardeidae); no body fossils of the family are known before the early Oligocene. Thus, it is inferred that the trackmaker was ecologically, rather than biotaxonomically, convergent with modern herons. This conclusion is consistent with growing evidence of convergence between Cretaceous, Cenozoic and extant avian track morphologies.
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