Papers by Félix Pérez-Lorente
Journal of Iberian Geology, Feb 14, 2023
The Sierra de las Cabras (Lat. 38° 28′ 53″N, Lon. 1° 24′ 52″W) is an exceptional ichnofossil site... more The Sierra de las Cabras (Lat. 38° 28′ 53″N, Lon. 1° 24′ 52″W) is an exceptional ichnofossil site of late Miocene age, located in the Prebetic ranges near the town of Jumilla (Murcia Province, SE Spain). The site contains abundant vertebrate ichnofauna preserved in carbonate facies that were deposited in a semi-arid wetland system with shallow ponds and marshes. The ichnofauna includes diverse mammal footprints and trackways, which have been recently studied, as well as bird ones, which are the target of this paper. We report a total of 51 avian footprints spread over two of the three track-bearing stratigraphic surfaces of the site. The detailed study of these ichnites (footprints and trackways) allows their attribution to the ichnogenus Fuscinapeda (Sarjeant and Langston, Texas Memorial Museum Bulletin 36:1-86, 1994), as well as to infer diverse patterns of bird's behavior consistent with shallow water wetlands avifauna. Also, we discuss about the possible trackmakers, which should correspond to walking birds characterized by long legs, with no hallux or a raised one, which could probably belong to the Gruiformes order. The study confirms the presence of Fuscinapeda in the Iberian Peninsula and completes the characterization of the vertebrate ichnofauna of Sierra de las Cabras, a site that joins the nearby Hoya de la Sima ichnofossil site to yield the largest and most diverse record of vertebrate ichnites of late Miocene age in southern Iberia.
Ichnos, Sep 9, 2009
... (2000)7. Bustillo, MA, Arias, C. and Vilas, L. 2000. Silicificación y paleokarstificación en ... more ... (2000)7. Bustillo, MA, Arias, C. and Vilas, L. 2000. Silicificación y paleokarstificación en depósitos evaporíticos continentales (Hoya de la Sima, Jumilla). Geotemas , 1(3): 209–212. View all references. ... Remeika, 200135. Remeika, P. 2001. ...
Measures and ratios betweem biomorphic and morphometric characters.
Measures and ratios betweem biomorphic and morphometric characters.
Calderon (1886) und Sanchez Lozano (1894) haben die ersten allgemeinen Arbeiten uber die Geologie... more Calderon (1886) und Sanchez Lozano (1894) haben die ersten allgemeinen Arbeiten uber die Geologie der Rioja veroffentlicht. Sie beziehen sich auf eine Reise, die J.U. Pereda und I. Aguirre y Muniain auf der Suche nach Mineralen unternommen hatten. Davon existiert noch ein Manuskript aus dem Jahr 1783. Weil Berichte uber Bergbau-Tatigkeit bis 1536 zuruckreichen, muss es sehr uberraschen, dass es vor Casanovas et Santafe (1971) keinen Hinweis auf die Dinosaurier-Fahrten in dieser Gegend gibt.
Calderon (1886) und Sanchez Lozano (1894) haben die ersten allgemeinen Arbeiten uber die Geologie... more Calderon (1886) und Sanchez Lozano (1894) haben die ersten allgemeinen Arbeiten uber die Geologie der Rioja veroffentlicht. Sie beziehen sich auf eine Reise, die J.U. Pereda und I. Aguirre y Muniain auf der Suche nach Mineralen unternommen hatten. Davon existiert noch ein Manuskript aus dem Jahr 1783. Weil Berichte uber Bergbau-Tatigkeit bis 1536 zuruckreichen, muss es sehr uberraschen, dass es vor Casanovas et Santafe (1971) keinen Hinweis auf die Dinosaurier-Fahrten in dieser Gegend gibt.
Ichnos, Sep 14, 2016
ABSTRACT Galve (Teruel, Spain) is a town in the interior of a synclinal fold with Upper Jurassic ... more ABSTRACT Galve (Teruel, Spain) is a town in the interior of a synclinal fold with Upper Jurassic marine limestones along its flanks, and, in its core, Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous continental and shoreline sediments crop out. The core sediments cover an area about 8 km2, and contain a concentration of sites with footprints, bones, and eggshells of dinosaurs. The footprints are both shafts and natural casts. Some casts are attributed to stegosaurs (Deltapodus). The Deltapodus casts are characterized by features that allow us to make direct observations on the skin formed by polygonal scales, and ellipsoidal “hooves,” as well as deductions on the movement of the limbs during walking. According to the opinion of some authors, dinosaur footprints are indicators of the motion of their limbs and sometimes of the whole body. So far, results have been deduced from theropod, ornithopod, and sauropod footprints. This article shows the results obtained from analis of the aforementioned Deltapodus casts, i.e., forelimb movement similar to that of the forelimbs of sauropods, and the rigid structure of the autopodial part of the hind limb.
Ichnos, Sep 14, 2016
ABSTRACT Galve (Teruel, Spain) is a town in the interior of a synclinal fold with Upper Jurassic ... more ABSTRACT Galve (Teruel, Spain) is a town in the interior of a synclinal fold with Upper Jurassic marine limestones along its flanks, and, in its core, Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous continental and shoreline sediments crop out. The core sediments cover an area about 8 km2, and contain a concentration of sites with footprints, bones, and eggshells of dinosaurs. The footprints are both shafts and natural casts. Some casts are attributed to stegosaurs (Deltapodus). The Deltapodus casts are characterized by features that allow us to make direct observations on the skin formed by polygonal scales, and ellipsoidal “hooves,” as well as deductions on the movement of the limbs during walking. According to the opinion of some authors, dinosaur footprints are indicators of the motion of their limbs and sometimes of the whole body. So far, results have been deduced from theropod, ornithopod, and sauropod footprints. This article shows the results obtained from analis of the aforementioned Deltapodus casts, i.e., forelimb movement similar to that of the forelimbs of sauropods, and the rigid structure of the autopodial part of the hind limb.
Ichnos, 2003
The Las Losas site (approximately 500 m 2) was cleared in July 1998 and revealed 375 theropod din... more The Las Losas site (approximately 500 m 2) was cleared in July 1998 and revealed 375 theropod dinosaur footprints. Statistical surveys of their biomorphical and morphometrical data are congruent with a continuous morphological transition among the theropod footprints-a transition which does not allow us to differentiate ichnogroups. Certain footprints show a longitudinal groove in their toes. The foot movement of their trackmakers can be inferred from these grooves. There are also, in this outcrop, i) trackways whose ichnites are either regular or anomalous according to the position of crossing, ii) semiplantigrade trackways with digitigrade sections and iii) trackways that cross the footprint site without variation in their footprints. These facts allow us to infer that: i) the substrate hardness was different in different zones at particular moments, and ii) the variation in the regularity and shape of the footprints depended upon the mud conditions at the moment they were made. Three preferential directions of march are shown by the trackways, suggesting different phases of activity.
Ichnos, 2003
The Las Losas site (approximately 500 m 2) was cleared in July 1998 and revealed 375 theropod din... more The Las Losas site (approximately 500 m 2) was cleared in July 1998 and revealed 375 theropod dinosaur footprints. Statistical surveys of their biomorphical and morphometrical data are congruent with a continuous morphological transition among the theropod footprints-a transition which does not allow us to differentiate ichnogroups. Certain footprints show a longitudinal groove in their toes. The foot movement of their trackmakers can be inferred from these grooves. There are also, in this outcrop, i) trackways whose ichnites are either regular or anomalous according to the position of crossing, ii) semiplantigrade trackways with digitigrade sections and iii) trackways that cross the footprint site without variation in their footprints. These facts allow us to infer that: i) the substrate hardness was different in different zones at particular moments, and ii) the variation in the regularity and shape of the footprints depended upon the mud conditions at the moment they were made. Three preferential directions of march are shown by the trackways, suggesting different phases of activity.
Uploads
Papers by Félix Pérez-Lorente
Moratalla (1993) distinguished three morphotypes of Iguanodon-like footprints, which are present in La Magdalena (Préjano), Peña Untura (San Román de Cameros) and Valdeté (Préjano) sites. In this work a fourth morphotype (Hadrosaurichnoides) from La Era del Peladillo site (Igea) is also considered. All of them are known in the Enciso Group (Aptian)... More in the text.
Several vertebrate footprints have been described in Tertiary
localities of the western Ebro Basin in recent years. The oldest ones come from the Eocene of Javier and Liédena (Navarra). Some Oligocene bird and mammal footprints were found near Etaio and Olejua (Navarra) and lower Miocene bird footprints have been described close to these localities as well (Astibia et al., 2007 and references herein). In La Rioja, two tracksites have been studied: Alcanadre of upper Oligocene– lower Miocene age (García-Raguel et al., 2009) and Cenicero of lower Miocene age (Díaz-Martínez et al., 2011, in press).
Fourteen sandstone blocks, extracted for the building of a winery in the vicinity of Cenicero, where found to contain vertebrate footprints. 142 footprints were analysed, 72 of which belong to birds, 46 to artiodactyls, six to perissodactyls, and 18 are unidentified.
Geological setting
The Ebro Basin is a continental tertiary filled endorheic basin bordered to the North by the Pyrinean Range, to the West by the Iberian Range and to the South by the Catalonian Coastal
Range. During the Miocene, this basin was filled by more than three thousand meters of distal alluvial complex sediments and lateral palustrine deposits. The Cenicero tracksite is located in the so-called transition unit and stratigraphically positioned between the Nájera Formation (below) and the Haro Formation (above) (Díaz-Martínez et al., 2011). The stratigraphic and cartographic relationship with the Fuenmayor microvertebrate site offers a lower Miocene age for the Cenicero site. Cricetid specimens recovered immediately below the footprint level and, therefore suggest that the site must be Agenian in age, between the lower Miocene local biozones Y and Z (Díaz-Martínez et al., 2011).
More in the text...
Dado que los fósiles raramente preservan las partes blandas, es conveniente aplicar un método específico para la reconstrucción de las mismas. Para tal fin fue desarrollada una metodología, el “Extant Phylogenetic Bracket” o EPB (Witmer, 1995), que permite la inferencia de tejidos blandos en los fósiles en base a la presencia de estructuras óseas correlacionables con dichas partes blandas presentes en los taxones vivientes más cercanos emparentados al fósil en estudio.
More in the text...
Keywords: Ornithopods, acropodium, myology, Extant Phylogenetic Bracket.
beginning of the vertebrate ichnology in the XIX century in Europe
(Sarjeant et al., 1998, and references herein). Thereafter, they were
found in America, Asia, Oceania and Africa (in the Antarctica not
yet) along the XX century. Within the large ornithopod footprints
are the historically called Iguanodon footprints, iguanodontid
footprints, hadrosaur/hadrosaurid footprints, etc. and others
that were also described as new ichnotaxa (e. g. Amblydactylus,
Iguanodontipus, Caririchnium, etc.). This group of footprints had
no a formal definition. Nevertheless, following the suggestions
of Thulborn (1990) for Iguanodon and Hadrosaur footprints they
could be considered as: tridactyl (or tetradactyl); mesaxonic;
approximately as long as wide; digits quite parallel, broad and
subequall in length; with a rounded phalangeal pad on each digit
and other in the metatarsophalangeal area (heel pad); and with
U-shaped or broadly V-shaped traces of claw.
Hunt and Lucas (2006) proposed that it was necessary to revise
the ichnotaxonomy of this kind of footprints. They suggested that
there were ichnotaxa defined with poor material without diagnostic
features and with inadequate diagnosis. Besides, they considered
that the Lower Cretaceous ornithopod footprints are normally
assigned to Iguanodontipus, Amblydactylus and Caririchnium, and
those from Upper Cretaceous to Hadrosauropodus.
Currently, we have analysed over forty ichnotaxa assigned to
large ornithopod dinosaurs (basal iguanodontoids, hadrosaurids,
etc.). As suggested by Hunt and Lucas (2006) most of them could
be considered as nomen nuda and nomen dubia because were
defined with poorly preserved or isolated footprints, or have an
inadequate diagnosis. For almost all the researchers, Amblydactylus,
Caririchnium, Hadrosauropodus and Iguanodontipus are the
only valid large ornithopod ichnotaxa (e.g. Lockley et al.,
2003).
More in the text...