Eocene Bird and Mammal Tracks from the Karaj Formation, Tarom Mountains, Northwestern Iran

Abstract

A long continuous trackway of a shorebird (cf. Charadriipeda) and a suite of possible Pantodonta (?Corophydon) or Dinocerata tracks are reported from the Eocene Karaj Formation. Fossil footprints are still rare in Iran, described only from two Jurassic and three Tertiary sites. Thus the current record, the third in the Teritary, adds to a sparse record and increases the diversity of known track types.

Keywords:

• Ichnology
• Vertebrate tracks
• Eocene
• Karaj Formation
• Iran

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Amir Ashtari, who first found the tracks of Karaj Formation. We offer our thanks to his family in Dashbulagh Village for their help. The authors also thank Parviz Rostami and Sa'eed Khosravi, students in earth sciences, for their help with field studies. We also thank Robert Reynolds and Doug Henderson for their reviews of this manuscript.