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A NEW VERTEBRATE FOOTPRINT LOCALITY FROM THE LATE TRIASSIC
PASSAIC FORMATION NEAR BIRDSBORO, PENNSYLVANIA
M.J. Szajna and B.W. Hartline
Although vertebrate footprint discoveries are common in the Late Triassic
Newark rift basin, very few tracks had been found in the early Rhaetian section of the Passaic Formation. However, periodic
exposures at the Furnace Hill locality near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, recently have produced some excellent footprint- bearing
layers. Ichnotaxa found here in order of abundance include Rhynchosauroides, Atreipus, Grallator, a small indeterminate quadruped,
Brachychirotherium and Chirotherium lulli. This assemblage shows very little change from older ones known from Carnian and
Norian localities in the Newark Supergroup. Also significant here are the stratigraphically highest occurences of Atreipus
and Chirotherium lulli. In the case of Atreipus, its final appearance may be implicated in the dramatic rise in abundance
of Grallator seen in younger strata.
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