Preliminary report of a large theropod dinosaur trackway in Clarens Formation sandstone (Early Jurassic) in the Paul Roux district, northeastern Free State, South Africa Michael A. Raath* & Adam M. Yates Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050 South Africa Received 19 May 2005. Accepted 10 December 2005 INTRODUCTION Unmistakable footprints preserved on a large detached block of sandstone on the farm Uniondale, about nine kilometres southeast of the small northeastern Free State town of Paul Roux (approximate locality coordinates 28°21’47”S, 28°00’05”E), have long been known as a local curiosity. The farmers and townsfolk of the area have long recognized that these markings are the fossilized ‘spoor’ or tracks of an ancient animal, most accepting the local folklore that the track-maker was ‘a dinosaurus’. Although the trackway is well known as a local curiosity and tourist attraction, we are unaware of any formal report or description of these tracks in the scientific litera- ture. The sandstone block on which the tracks occur (Fig. 1) has come to rest on its side near the base of the adjacent hill from which it has evidently tumbled. It appears to have broken off from a thick, relatively coarse massive sandstone which outcrops near the top of the hill. This sandstone horizon is high in the succession of ‘Stormberg’ rocks in the area. It is underlain by many metres of coarse, massive sandstone and there can be no doubt that the trackway horizon belongs to the Clarens Formation (Early Jurassic), a conclusion shared by the late James W. Kitching, in whose memory this volume is presented, who visited the site on many occasions over the years. Dinosaur tracks are known from many localities in ‘Stormberg’ exposures in Lesotho (Ellenberger 1970) and adjacent areas of South Africa (see e.g. van Dijk 1978; Olsen & Galton 1984; Raath et al. 1990; Gow & Latimer 1999), mainly in mudrocks of the Elliot Formation, although Ellenberger (1970) recorded quite a few Lesotho tracksites in what he identified as ‘Cave Sandstone’, an old name for the Clarens Formation. During a brief field excursion by staff and students of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research in June 2003 it was decided to take advantage of a stop on Uniondale farm to measure and photograph the tracks (Fig. 2) and formally place them on record. Because of the way the block has come to rest, the origi- nal surface along which the track-maker moved is now ISSN 0078-8554 Palaeont. afr. (December 2005) 41: 101–104 101 *Author for correspondence: E–mail: raathm@geosciences.wits.ac.za An isolated fallen block of Clarens Formation sandstone near the small northeastern Free State town of Paul Roux preserves part of the trackway of a bipedal dinosaur. Although well known as a local curiosity, this trackway has not previously been formally reported or described. It consists of five successive paces of what is interpreted as a medium-sized to large theropod dinosaur, and represents the largest known theropod trackway in the ‘Stormberg’ sequence in South Africa. The tracks are assigned to the ichnotaxon Grallator sp., and show similarities to North American tracks of comparable age originally described as Dilophosauripus. Until now no body fossils of a likely candidate trackmaker were known, but elsewhere in this volume a possible candidate is described by the second author. Keywords: Dinosauria, tracks, Stormberg, Clarens Formation, Early Jurassic, Grallator, Kainotrisauropus, Dilophosauripus. Figure 1. Isolated block of Clarens Formation sandstone on the farm Uniondale, preserving five paces of a dinosaur trackway moving from bottom right to top left. almost vertical, and therefore rather difficult to measure without some means of climbing the almost vertical five to six metre high face, hence the number of dimensions in Table 1 calculated from scaled photographs, which must therefore be taken as approximations. DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIONDALE TRACKWAY The trackway on Uniondale consists of a series of five successive footprints of a large bipedal tridactyl animal (Figs 3 & 4). There is no trace of manus prints associated with any of the pes prints. Because the block is loose and lying on its side, it is no longer possible to determine in which direction the animal originally walked. There are several other scattered, isolated prints of one or more smaller animals on the block, but no clear individual trackways; one such isolated print can be seen slightly below and to the right of R2 in Figure 3a, heading obliquely in the opposite direction to the main trackway. Each individual print is symmetrically tridactyl, with the central digit (III) the longest (Fig. 4). Each toe print narrows distally, ending in a sharply pointed impression of a narrow claw. Although there has been some weather- ing of the surface on which the prints are impressed, and no clear details of toe-pad morphology are preserved, their general sharpness and clarity suggests that they are the slightly weathered primary prints impressed directly on the surface on which the animal walked, not under- prints. Table 1 gives the dimensions of the Uniondale trackway, following the methods and terminology of Leonardi (1987) combined with those of Thulborn (1984); where they could not be measured the dimensions were calcu- lated from scaled photographs. Where measurements were physically taken the reference point was the base of the central digit (III). IDENTITY OF THE UNIONDALE TRACK-MAKER The symmetrically tridactyl prints of the Uniondale trackway agree most closely in shape and size with tracks from beds of comparable age in Lesotho which Ellenberger (1970) named Kainotrisauropus spp. Olsen & Galton (1984) referred Kainotrisauropus to the ubiquitous tridactyl ichnotaxon Grallator (Eubrontes), which is gener- ally attributed to bipedal saurischian dinosaurs, notably the theropods (Olsen & Galton, 1984). The Uniondale track-maker is tentatively identified as a theropod on the grounds that its footprints are longer than broad, that each toe tapers distally, and the toe prints each end in a sharp claw imprint; ornithischian prints in general would be expected to be broader than long, with the toe prints having roughly parallel sides and each ending in a rounded ungual impression rather than the sharply tapering imprint of a claw (Thulborn 1984). The 102 ISSN 0078-8554 Palaeont. afr. (December 2005) 41: 101–104 Figure 2. Measuring stride length from L1 (obscured by bush) to L2 (stride = 2.80 m). Table 1. Dimensions of dinosaur tracks. Dimension Uniondale trackway Ntumbe River trackway** Dilophosauripus*** Print length ~397 mm (L2*) 400 230 Print width ~323 mm (L2*) 300 280 Ratio of print width to print length 0.81 1.33 0.82 Divarication angle between digits II and III 37 degrees 31 20 Divarication angle between digits III and IV 34 degrees 26 28 Pace length 1.44 m (L1–R1) 1.27 m (ave) 1.06 (isolated print) ~1.50 m (L2–R2*) Pace angulation 136 degrees (R1–L2–R2) 135 degrees (ave) 140 degrees (L2–R2–L3) Stride length 2.80 m (L1 to L2) 1.26–2.62 Ratio pes length:pace 3.6 3.2 ~3 *Measured from scaled photographs. **Broderick 1984; Munyikwa 1996. ***Welles 1971. lack of manual prints also rules out any quadrupedal dinosaurs such as the prosauropods that dominate the dinosaur fauna of the Elliot and Clarens formations (see e.g. Kitching & Raath 1984), and therefore also rules out attribution of these tracks to the quadrupedal ichnotaxon Atreipus. The tracks reported here agree in general features with unnamed tracks in beds of approximately similar age on the Ntumbe River in northeastern Zimbabwe (Broderick 1984, 1985; Munyikwa 1996) (Table 1), although these prints do not seem to show distinct impressions of nar- row, trenchant claws (Raath, pers. obs.). They also agree quite well with tracks recorded by Welles (1971) from the approximately coeval Kayenta Formation of the south- western U.S.A. (Table 1), which he named Dilophosauripus, suggesting possibly another instance of close resemblance between the faunas of the ‘Stormberg’ of southern Africa and the Kayenta Formation of North America (see e.g. ISSN 0078-8554 Palaeont. afr. (December 2005) 41: 101–104 103 Figure 3. a, The full trackway, with figure for scale, and individual prints labelled (note the isolated smaller print [circled] below and to the right of R2, heading in the opposite direction to the main trackway). b, Same as (a), with successive strides (S1, S2) and paces (P1–P4) indicated. Figure 4. a, Individual print (L2) (scale bar = 60 mm). b, Same as (a) with lines on which divarication angles were measured between digits II and III (angle B) and between III and IV (angle A). See Table 1 for values. Olsen & Galton 1984: 92–93). The animal that made the Uniondale track is consider- ably larger than any theropod dinosaur known to date by body fossils from either the Elliot or Clarens formations; until now the only theropod represented by bony remains from these deposits is the small form originally named Syntarsus (now considered a synonym of Coelophysis) (Raath 1980; Paul 1993; Bristowe & Raath 2004). Two foot- prints attributed to this Gondwana species of Coelophysis are known from rocks of Upper Elliot age in Zimbabwe (Raath 1972) and these, together with the abundant, well- preserved foot bones of this animal, make it clear that Coelophysis is far too small to have been the Uniondale track-maker. However, elsewhere in this volume, Yates (2005) describes a new large coelophysoid theropod of comparable geological age whose fragmentary remains indicate an animal of the right order of size to have made tracks like those at Uniondale. We are grateful to the owner of Uniondale for permission to visit and measure the trackway on his farm. The text benefitted from reviews by Drs Claudia Marsicano and Roger Smith, whom we thank for their input. REFERENCES BRISTOWE, A. & RAATH, M.A. 2004. A juvenile coelophysoid skull from the Early Jurassic of Zimbabwe, and the synonymy of Coelophysis and Syntarsus. Palaeontologia africana 40, 31–41. BRODERICK, T.J. 1984. A record of dinosaur footprints from the Chewore Safari Area west of Mana-Angwa. Unpublished report of the Zimbabwe Geological Survey, Harare, Zimbabwe. BRODERICK, T.J. 1985. Zambezi Valley notes. Annals of the Zimbabwe Geo- logical Survey 10, 48–63. ELLENBERGER, P. 1970. Les niveaux paléontologiques de premier apparition des Mammifères Primordiaux en Afrique du Sud et leur ichnologie: établissement de zones stratigraphiques dans le Storm- berg du Lesotho (Afrique du Sud) (Trias Supérieur a Jurassique). In: Haughton, S.H. (ed.), I.U.G.S., 2nd Symposium on Gondwana Stratigra- phy and Palaeontology, 343–370. Pretoria, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. GOW, C.E. & LATIMER, E.M. 1999. Preliminary report of dinosaur tracks in Qwa Qwa, South Africa. Palaeontologia africana 35, 41–43. KITCHING, J.W. & RAATH, M.A. 1984. Fossils from the Elliot and Clarens formations (Karoo Sequence) of the northeastern Cape, Orange Free State and Lesotho, and a suggested biozonation based on tetrapods. Palaeontologia africana 25, 111–125. LEONARDI, G. (ed.) 1987. Glossary and Manual of Tetrapod Footprint Paleoichnology. Brasilia, Brazilian Department of Mines and Energy. MUNYIKWA, D. 1996. Description of the first dinosaur trackway found in Zimbabwe. Arnoldia (Zimbabwe) 10(6), 36–45. OLSEN, P.E. & GALTON, P.M. 1984. A review of the reptile and amphib- ian assemblages from the Stormberg of southern Africa, with special emphasis on the footprints and the age of the Stormberg. Palaeontologia africana 25, 87–110. PAUL, G. 1993. Are Syntarsus and the Whitaker Quarry theropod the same genus? New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 3, 397–402. RAATH, M.A. 1972. First record of dinosaur footprints from Rhodesia. Arnoldia (Rhodesia) 5(27), 1–5. RAATH, M.A. 1980. The theropod dinosaur Syntarsus (Saurischia: Podokesauridae) discovered in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 76(8), 375–376. RAATH, M.A., KITCHING, J.W., SHONE, R.W. & ROSSOUW, G.J. 1990. Dinosaur tracks in Triassic Molteno sediments: the earliest evidence of dinosaurs in South Africa? Palaeontologia africana 27, 89–95. THULBORN, R.A. 1984. Dinosaur trackways in the Winton Formation (mid-Cretaceous) of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 21(2), 413–517. VAN DIJK, D.E. 1978. Trackways in the Stormberg. Palaeontologia africana 21, 113–120. WELLES, S.P. 1971. Dinosaur footprints from the Kayenta Formation of northern Arizona. Plateau 44, 27–38. YATES, A.M. 2005. A new theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa and its implications for the early evolution of theropods. Palaeontologia africana 41, 105–122. 104 ISSN 0078-8554 Palaeont. afr. (December 2005) 41: 101–104 << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJDFFile false /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /SyntheticBoldness 1.00 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true /AmazoneBT-Regular ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.00667 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.40 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 200 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.01000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 800 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 2.00500 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown /Description << /FRA /JPN /DEU /PTB /DAN /NLD /ESP /SUO /ITA /NOR /SVE /ENU >> >> setdistillerparams << /HWResolution [1200 1200] /PageSize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice