User:Abyssal/Duquettichnus

Cretaceous bird and mammal tracks
During the course of examining the "natural mold talus block (TMP 98.89.20)" William Sarjeant discovered "extremely shallowly impressed" mammal tracks preserved in the lower center part of the specimen. Mammal footprints had previously documented from the Gething Formation strata of the Peace River Canyon. These tracks were given the name Duquettichnus kooli by second author William Sarjeant and Thulborn in 1986. They were so large and so closely resembled the tracks of the modern Australian brush tail possum that the authors concluded that they were left by a marsupial. The Gates Formation tracks, by contrast, were the smallest mammal tracks reported from Mesozoic strata, and had a significantly different morphology.

Reference

 * McCrea, R. T. and W. A S. Sarjeant. 2001. New ichnotaxa of bird and mammal footprints from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Gates Formation of Alberta; pp. 453–478 in D. H. Tanke, and K. Carpenter, (eds.), Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.