AUTHOR=Abrahams Miengah , Bordy Emese M. , Knoll Fabien , Farlow James O. TITLE=Theropod Tridactyl Tracks Across the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary in Southern Africa: Implications for Pedal Morphology Evolution JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution VOLUME=10 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.925313 DOI=10.3389/fevo.2022.925313 ISSN=2296-701X ABSTRACT=
The end-Triassic mass extinction events mark a pivotal period in archosaur history, and have been proposed to contribute to the rise and dominance of dinosaurs throughout the Mesozoic. In southern Africa, the Triassic–Jurassic boundary is contained within the richly fossiliferous fluvio-lacustrine-aeolian deposits of the upper Stormberg Group in the main Karoo Basin. Due to an absence of high-resolution radioisotopic age constraints, the exact placement of the boundary remains difficult. The Stormberg Group theropod osteological record is limited to scarce, fragmentary material; therefore, the abundant Norian–Pliensbachian tridactyl tracks attributed to theropods are vital for unraveling theropod dinosaur evolutionary trends in southwestern Gondwana. This study considers over 200 upper Stormberg Group tridactyl tracks assigned to the