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Earliest zygodactyl bird feet: evidence from Early Cretaceous roadrunner-like tracks

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Abstract

Fossil footprints are important in understanding Cretaceous avian diversity because they constitute evidence of paleodiversity and paleoecology that is not always apparent from skeletal remains. Early Cretaceous bird tracks have demonstrated the existence of wading birds in East Asia, but some pedal morphotypes, such as zygodactyly, common in modern and earlier Cenozoic birds (Neornithes) were unknown in the Cretaceous. We, herein, discuss the implications of a recently reported, Early Cretaceous (120–110 million years old) trackway of a large, zygodactyl bird from China that predates skeletal evidence of this foot morphology by at least 50 million years and includes the only known fossil zygodactyl footprints. The tracks demonstrate the existence of a Cretaceous bird not currently represented in the body fossil record that occupied a roadrunner (Geococcyx)-like niche, indicating a previously unknown degree of Cretaceous avian morphological and behavioral diversity that presaged later Cenozoic patterns.

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Notes

  1. Unlike phylogenetic systematics but like other parataxonomic systems, ichnotaxonomy, by convention, does not parallel evolutionary phylogeny, utilizing instead artificial groupings that represent particular morphologies and/or behavioral modes of, phylogenetically, often disparate organisms—widely disparate organisms can produce similar ichnites that indicate similar ecologies and/or behaviors. Thus, an ichnofamily is not a Linnean entity per se, and ichnofamilies can be monotaxic because they are intended only to indicate a high degree of difference from other ichnological morphologies and/or behaviors. Given the multiple occurrences of zygodactyly in birds and, indeed, some other tetrapods, other fossil zygodactyl tracks should eventually be found and also reside in this ichnofamily. See Bertling et al. (2006) and Lockley (2007) for further details.

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Acknowledgments

Earlier drafts of this manuscript were greatly improved by discussions with and comments and reviews by L. Chiappe, M. Lamanna, G. Mayr, A. R. C. Milner, J. O’Connor, H.-L. You, and an anonymous reviewer. This study was supported financially, in part, by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant 40572011 to RL. Additional support was provided by the University and Society Collaboration of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture grant-in-aid 1183303, 1999–2001 to M. M. and by the CU at Denver Dinosaur Tracks Museum to ML. The authors declare that all material was collected, examined, and replicated in full compliance with the laws of their countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dinosaur Tracks Museum, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO, 80217, USA

    Martin G. Lockley

  2. Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geological Survey, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Rihui Li

  3. Science Department, Dixie State College, 225 South 700 East, St. George, UT, 84770, USA

    Jerald D. Harris

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Gakugei University, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan

    Masaki Matsukawa

  5. Fourth Geological and Mineral Resources Survey of Shandong, Wei-fang, 261021, People’s Republic of China

    Mingwei Liu

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  1. Martin G. Lockley
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Correspondence to Martin G. Lockley.

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Communicated by G. Mayr

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Lockley, M.G., Li, R., Harris, J.D. et al. Earliest zygodactyl bird feet: evidence from Early Cretaceous roadrunner-like tracks. Naturwissenschaften 94, 657–665 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0239-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0239-x

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