ArticlePloS one2023
The oldest fossil bird-like footprints from the upper Triassic of southern Africa.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Macroevolutionary trends of avian ichnodisparity in Gondwana.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Identifying variation in dinosaur footprints and classifying problematic specimens via unbiased unsupervised machine learning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Footprint morphology reflects the anatomy of the trackmaker's foot and is direct evidence for the animal's behaviour. Consequently, fossil tracks can be used to infer ancient diversity, ethology, and evolutionary trends. This is particularly useful for deep-time intervals during which the early history of an animal group is reliant upon limited fossil skeletal material. Fossil tracks of early birds and theropods, the co-existing dinosaurian ancestors of birds, co-occur in the rock record since the Early Cretaceous. However, the evolutionary transition from dinosaur to bird and the timing of the birds' origin are still contested. Skeletal remains of the basal-most birds Aurornis, Anchiornis, Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia are Middle to Late Jurassic, while tracks with tentative bird affinities, attributed to dinosaurs, are known from as early as the Late Triassic. Here, we present numerous, well-provenanced, Late Triassic and Early Jurassic tridactyl tracks from southern Africa, with demonstrable bird-like affinities, predating basal bird body fossils by c. 60 million years.
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