A Palaeoichnological Itinerary Through the Cenozoic of the Southern Margin of the Pyrenees and the Northern Ebro Basin (Aragón, Northeast Spain)

Abstract

This work aims to display the value of the great wealth of mammal and avian tracksites of the Cenozoic from the Pre-pyrenees and the Ebro Valley of Aragón (Spain), by designing a paleoichnological itinerary, which includes the main tracksites. Currently scientific research in these fields is being carried out, with very interesting preliminary results as a consequence of the poor ichnofossil record in the Paleogene worldwide. But in addition to the scientific importance, we want to emphasize the value of this paleontological heritage as a tourist and didactic resource as well the geoconservation work carried out in the tracksites. In some of these sites (Fondota, Sierra de Luna and La Playa Fósil), conservation and adaptation actions have been implemented over the last decades. These actions have allowed people to access and visit these tracksites, and thus, strengthening them as socio-economic resource of this region.

Defining the morphological quality of fossil footprints. Problems and principles of preservation in tetrapod ichnology with examples from the Palaeozoic to the present

“…Lithofacies and depositional environment. Limestones deposited in a shallow carbonate lacustrine system (Luzón, 2005;Rabal-Garcés et al, 2018).…”

“…The site is currently under evaluation and the working hypothesis is that the putative web-like structure seen in one of the morphotypes (PF-t1, Fig. 21B) is in fact an extramorphological feature produced by the footsediment interaction (Rabal-Garcés et al, 2018), such that a similar trackmaker might have produced the two types of footprints by walking in substrates of different consistency. The footprints of PF-t1 have low preservation grade (0.5-1.5).…”

Neverovsky Palaeoreef and Associated Deep-Marine Facies: High-Value Late Devonian Geoheritage from the Rudny Altai

“…Regular monitoring of the proposed geosites will also be necessary. The international developments and experience of geoconservation [78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86] should also be taken into account. Local museums, which are available in several cities and towns of the Altai Region of Russia, can be responsible for the management of the Neverovsky palaeoreef and the other two proposed geosites.…”

New mammal and bird tracks from the Lower Oligocene of the Ebro Basin (NE Spain): implications for the Palaeogene ichnological record

“…One of these areas with a considerable number of tracksites is the Ebro Basin, in Northeastern Spain which ichnological record spans from the Lower Eocene to the Lower Miocene (e.g. : Díaz-Martínez et al 2018;Rabal-Garcés et al 2018). The Paleogene ichnological record of the Ebro Basin is especially significant in order to reconstruct the vertebrate diversity, especially in the central sector of the basin since the osteological record is very scarce (Cuenca et al 1992).…”