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A new and diverse Late Cretaceous vertebrate tracksite from the Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia Project ID: 0000C1222 Public
4 Media · 1 Specimen · Creator: Matt White, Tim Ziegler, Samantha Rigby, Adele Pentland, David Elliott, Stephen Poropat, Ruairidh Duncan, Trish Sloan · Managed by: Stephen Poropat

The Upper Cretaceous ‘upper’ Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia is world famous for hosting Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at Lark Quarry Conservation Park, a somewhat controversial tracksite that preserves thousands of tridactyl dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithopods and theropods. Herein, we describe the Snake Creek Tracksite, a new vertebrate ichnoassemblage from the ‘upper’ Winton Formation, originally situated on Karoola Station but now relocated to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History. This site preserves the first sauropod tracks reported from eastern Australia, a small number of theropod and ornithopod tracks, the first fossilised crocodyliform and ?turtle tracks reported from Australia, and possible lungfish and actinopterygian feeding traces. The sauropod trackways are wide-gauge, with manus tracks bearing an ungual impression on digit I, and anteriorly tapered pes tracks with straight or concave forward posterior margins. These tracks support the hypothesis that at least one sauropod taxon from the ‘upper’ Winton Formation retained a pollex claw (previously hypothesised for Diamantinasaurus matildae based on body fossils). Many of the crocodyliform trackways indicate underwater walking. The Snake Creek Tracksite reconciles the sauropod-, crocodyliform-, turtle-, and lungfish-dominated body fossil record of the ‘upper’ Winton Formation with its heretofore ornithopod- and theropod-dominated ichnofossil record.

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  ID Part Object Taxonomy Type Date Added Publication Status  
000355404 Snake Creek Tracksite: Crocodyliform tracks AOD:F:904 Mesh 2021-04-06 Restricted Download  
000355400 Snake Creek Tracksite: Crocodyliform tracks AOD:F:904 Mesh 2021-04-06 Restricted Download  
000355396 Snake Creek Tracksite: Theropod, ornithopod, crocodyliform and ?testudinatan tracks AOD:F:904 Mesh 2021-04-06 Restricted Download  
000355391 Snake Creek Tracksite: Sauropod, theropod, ornithopod, crocodyliform and ?testudinatan tracks, and ?dipnoan and ?actinopterygian feeding traces AOD:F:904 Mesh 2021-04-06 Restricted Download  
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