Lower Cretaceous Dinosaur Tracks from Puebla, Mexico

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Abstract

Dinosaur tracks have been identified near San Martín Atexcal, southern Puebla, Mexico, within the sedimentary sequence of the San Juan Raya Formation of Lower Cretaceous (Albian) age. The tracksite, located in the bed of the Magdalena River, reveals six different ichnofossiliferous levels identified within a 9 m thick sedimentary sequence. The inferred environment is that of a tidal (marginal marine) mudflat (Level I). Level I preserves three theropods trackways (?Allosauroidea), additionally, isolated tracks belonging to iguanodontids (Ornithopoda). Level II preserves faint iguanodontid tracks. Levels III to V preserve sauropod tracks. Younger level VI preserves, although morphologically different, a track belonging to Ornithopoda. The dinosaur tracks from San Martín Atexcal support the existence of continental facies within the San Juan Raya Formation; they represent the second record of dinosaur tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of Mexico and are part of an important but little documented record of Lower Cretaceous dinosaurs in Mexico.

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Predatory Dinosaurs from the Sahara and Late Cretaceous Faunal Differentiation

Paul M Magwene, M.I. Sereno, Iarochene … (1996)

Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) fossils discovered in the Kem Kem region of Morocco include large predatory dinosaurs that inhabited Africa as it drifted into geographic isolation. One, represented by a skull approximately 1.6 meters in length, is an advanced allosauroid referable to the African genus Carcharodontosaurus. Another, represented by a partial skeleton with slender proportions, is a new basal coelurosaur closely resembling the Egyptian genus Bahariasaurus. Comparisons with Cretaceous theropods from other continents reveal a previously unrecognized global radiation of carcharodontosaurid predators. Substantial geographic differentiation of dinosaurian faunas in response to continental drift appears to have arisen abruptly at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous.