Palaeontologia africana

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ISSN (print): 0078-8554 ISSN (electronic): 2410-4418 For queries regarding content of Palaeontologia africana collections please contact Jonah Choiniere by email : jonah.choiniere@wits.ac.za or Tel : 011 717 6684

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Author: search.filters.author.de Klerk, William JSubject: search.filters.subject.Aulacephaladon

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    A dicynodont trackway from the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone in the Karoo, East of Graaff-Reinet, South Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2002) de Klerk, William J
    This paper reports a partially exposed late Permian palaeosurface with preserved vertebrate tracks at the "Asante Sana" private game reserve in the vicinity of Petersburg, 46km east of Graaff-Reinet. Excavation of the palaeosurface over an area of 34m2 revealed clear footprints and trackways of six large tetrapods that walked in a westerly direction across a semi-consolidated muddy substrate in the distal floodplain area of a large fluvial system. Clear heteropodous impressions of the footpads and individual toes and claws are preserved as concave epirelief moulds. It is concluded that these fossil tracks were made by a group of therapsids, specifically a group of large dicynodonts, possibly Aulacephalodon. The tracks are here assigned to the ichnospecies Dicynodontipus icelsi sp. nov. A continuous trackway and numerous less distinct individual prints and markings made by smaller tetrapods are also preserved on the palaeosurface. It is probable that these tracks were left by Diictodon, a small common dicynodont of the time.