Linking tetrapod tracks to the biodynamics, paleobiogeography, and paleobiology of their trackmakers: Pachypes dolomiticus Leonardi et al., 1975, a case study

Linking tetrapod tracks to the biodynamics, paleobiogeography, and paleobiology of their trackmakers: Pachypes dolomiticus Leonardi et al., 1975, a case study Case studies on features of definite ichnotaxa enabling the identification of their trackmakers are very rare, and those concerning Paleozoic footprints are virtually absent. Here, taking as an example the late Permian ichnospecies Pachypes dolomiticus leonardi et al., 1975, assigned to pareiasaurs, we provide a data source of characters which are virtually linked to possible biodynamic skills of its trackmaker. the ichnological data support dual-gait locomotion, a semiplantigrade hand and a digitigrade foot for the Pachypes trackmaker. Furthermore, paleontological data suggest that some differences might occur within hypothetical pareiasaurian footprints, linked to different morphological features of the biotaxa. the latter data also let us hypothesize that the Pachypes trackmaker belong to a pareiasaur of the clade therischia. the data employed here also provide paleobiogeographical and paleobiological information not yet determined from body fossils. they support, for instance, the hypothesis that juvenile and adult trackmakers of P. dolomiticus shared, at least partially, the same habitat.