Tetrapod tracks from the Middle Triassic of NW Sardinia (Nurra region, Italy)

Paolo Citton (1), Ausonio Ronchi (2), Umberto Nicosia (3), Eva Sacchi (3,4), Simone Maganuco (5,6), Angelo Cipriani (3), Giulia Innamorati (3), Costantino Zuccari (7), Fabio Manucci (6) & Marco Romano (3)
(1) IIPG, Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología (CONICET - UNRN), General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina. (2) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell'Ambiente, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy. (3) Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy. (4) Sam Noble Museum, Norman, Oklahoma. (5) Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, Milano, Italy. (6) Associazione Paleontologica Paleoartistica Italiana, Parma, Italy. (7) Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Corresponding authors e-mail: marco.romano@uniroma1.it

We report here on the first tetrapod tracks from the Triassic of the Nurra region (north-western Sardinia, Italy). The specimens were found on sandstone blocks used to build a fence limiting a seasonal camping, in the coastal area north of Capo Caccia promontory. Lithologic and petrographic features allowed an assignment of the track-bearing blocks to the middle-upper portion of the Anisian (Middle Triassic) Arenarie di Cala Viola ("Buntsandstein"). Footprints are attributed to the ichnotaxa Rhynchosauroides and Rotodactylus, two common ichnotaxa of late Early Triassic and Middle Triassic ichnofaunas of Europe and United States, commonly referred in the literature to neodiapsid and archosaur producers, respectively.

Triassic, tetrapods, Rhynchosauroides, Rotodactylus, Arenarie di Cala Viola.