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Locomotor behavior in early reptiles: insights from an unusual Erpetopus trackway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Massimo Bernardi  and
Marco Avanzini
Massimo Bernardi
Affiliation:
Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, via Calepina, 14-38122 Trento, Italy, ;
Marco Avanzini
Affiliation:
Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, via Calepina, 14-38122 Trento, Italy, ;
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Abstract

An Erpetopus trackway recorded in the Lower Permian Collio Formation (Orobic Alps, northern Italy) is investigated as a source of data to reconstruct ancestral patterns of locomotion in eureptiles. The inferred small-sized captorhinid-“protorothyridid” producer cut an inclined muddy surface dragging its front limb digits, tail, and belly on the ground. Integrating ichnological and anatomical data we suggest that small captorhinids (“protorothyridids”) locomotion was performed with an obligatory, rigid sprawling posture with the trunk only slightly lifted from the substrate in a low, sprawled ‘belly walk’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 925 - 929
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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