Meade Luke E, Jones Andrew S, Butler Richard J
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham , Birmingham , United Kingdom.
PeerJ. 2016 Nov 24;4:e2718. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2718. eCollection 2016.
A series of sandstone slabs from Hamstead, Birmingham (West Midlands, UK), preserve an assemblage of tetrapod trackways and individual tracks from the Enville Member of the Salop Formation (late Carboniferous: late Moscovian-Kasimovian). This material has received limited previous study, despite being one of the few British sites to preserve Carboniferous tetrapod footprints. Here, we restudy and revise the taxonomy of this material, and document it using 3D models produced using photogrammetry. The assemblage is dominated by large tracks assigned to isp., which were made by early amphibians (temnospondyls). A number of similar but smaller tracks are assigned to (also made by temnospondyls). (made by early synapsids) and (made by lizard-like sauropsids such as araeoscelids) are also present. This ichnofauna contrasts with a slightly stratigraphically older, more extensive and better-studied assemblage from Alveley (Shropshire), which is dominated by small amphibians with relatively rare reptiliomorphs, but which lacks tracks. The presence of at Hamstead is consistent with the trend towards increasing aridity through the late Carboniferous. It is possible that the assemblage is the stratigraphically oldest occurrence of this important amniote ichnotaxon.
来自英国西米德兰兹郡伯明翰市哈姆斯特德的一系列砂岩板，保存了来自萨洛普组恩维尔段（石炭纪晚期：莫斯科阶晚期 - 卡西莫夫阶）的四足动物足迹化石组合和单个足迹。尽管该地点是英国为数不多的保存石炭纪四足动物足迹的地点之一，但此前对这些材料的研究有限。在此，我们重新研究并修订了这些材料的分类，并使用摄影测量法制作的三维模型对其进行记录。该组合主要由归入“isp.”的大型足迹组成，这些足迹是早期两栖动物（离片椎类）留下的。一些相似但较小的足迹被归入“ ”（同样由离片椎类留下）。“ ”（由早期合弓类留下）和“ ”（由类似蜥蜴的蜥形类如始鳄类留下）也有发现。这个遗迹化石群与来自阿尔弗利（什罗普郡）的一个地层稍老、范围更广且研究更充分的组合形成对比，后者以小型两栖动物为主，爬行动物形态相对较少，且没有“ ”足迹。哈姆斯特德出现“ ”足迹与石炭纪晚期干旱加剧的趋势一致。这个组合有可能是这个重要羊膜动物遗迹分类单元在地层上最古老的出现记录。
