First Record of Gregarious Behavior in Robust Medium-Sized Jurassic Ornithopods: Evidence from the Kimmeridgian Trackways of Asturias (N. Spain) and Some General Considerations on Other Medium-Large Ornithopod Tracks in the Mesozoic Record

ABSTRACT

At least four parallel trackways of medium-sized and robust ornithopods are described from the Upper Jurassic Tereñes tracksite in Asturias (N. Spain). While the tracks and trackways of small and gracile ornithopods are common in the Jurassic record, large ornithopods are very rare in this period. Ornithopod gregarious behavior has been recorded from many Cretaceous ichnoassemblages, but there are few examples from the Jurassic, and these always relate to small individuals. The Asturian tracks are quite different from known ichnogenera, but they are not sufficiently well preserved to propose a new one. Medium-large Jurassic ornithopods with robust feet such as Draconyx or Cumnoria are the best candidates to be the trackmakers.

KEYWORDS:

• Ornithopod trackways
• gregarious behaviour
• Kimmeridgian
• Tereñes Formation; Asturias
• N. Spain

Acknowledgments

We thank Diego Castanera and Martin Lockley for their helpful reviews and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript.

Funding

Financial support for L.P. and J.C. G.-R. was provided by Project CGL2012-33281 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad).