New Important Iguanodontid and Theropod Trackways of the Tracksite Obernkirchen in the Berriasian of NW Germany and Megatracksite Concept of Central Europe

Abstract

This article examines the high-resolution track horizon stratigraphy at the outcrop Obernkirchen. Massive sandstones, products of marine sand bar and fluviatile environments are present at the tracksite. Recently two track beds were examined in the outcrop. One new track slab of the lower track bed is described exposing well-preserved quadrupedal iguanodontid tracktypes of Iguanodontipus Sarjeant, Delair, and Lockley, 1998, and bipedal theropod tracks Megalosauropus Kaever and Lapparent, 1974. The ichnogenus Iguanodontipus is discussed and the diagnosis extended. The tracksite Obernkirchen belongs to a megatracksite of the ancient coastline of the marginal marine Hercynic Basin of the Lower Cretaceous of Europe, including the four well-known sites Obernkirchen, Bad Rehburg, Münchehagen, and Bückeburg of Northwest Germany. Three different tracktypes of huge sauropods, theropods, and ornithopods are abundant at basal Lower Cretaceous siliciclastic coastlines in different regions in Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, and Switzerland. Dinosaur tracks are also present in carbonate platform environments of northern Italy and Istria.

Keywords:

• Obernkirchen
• Northwest Germany
• palichnostratigraphy
• sand bar
• Berriassian
• Lower Cretaceous
• quadrupedal iguanodontids
• Iguanodontipus
• bipedal theropods
• Megalosauropus
• sauropods
• trackways
• megatracksites

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I cordially thank the director M. Strauβ of the Dobergmuseum-Geologisches Museum Ostwestfalen-Lippe Bünde and the company Kessler and Co. GmbH who sponsored this work, being a contribution to the presentation with the text-figures and explanation of the exposed track slab of Obernkirchen in the museum. The track slab was found in 1987 and kindly donated to the museum by Dipl.-Ing./Kfm. A. Krewitt. The comparison to the material of Iguanodon excavated by K.-H. Hilpert, especially the digital bones of the German site Nehden, was made possible by M. Brinkmann of the Geologisch-Paläontologische Institut of the Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität Münster.