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Abstract
Evidence of tetrapod footprints is scarce in the Carboniferous rocks of Europe and only a dozen sites have been found. Here is presented the first description of the Carboniferous tetrapod traces collected from the Bogdanka Coal Mine, Lublin Basin, south-eastern Poland. The footprints occur in reddish, white-gray sandstone or black-brown siltstone-mudstone, fluvial and lacustrine in origin, of the Westphalian A and B (about 315 and 310 Ma, lower-middle Pennsylvanian) of the Lublin Formation. Based on the study of 19 specimens (isolated and usually poorly preserved manus or pes imprints), I discern two distinct types of tetrapod footprints and also problematic traces (or scratches) made by swimming tetrapods. Footprints are assigned to the two ichnotaxa: Batrachichnus–Limnopus plexus and aff. Pseudobradypus isp. Traces described as Tetrapoda indet. A–C represent poorly preserved footprints, which are similar to the ichnogenera Ichniotherium, Dimetropus and Attenosaurus. The described trace fossils were produced by small amphibians (temnospondyls) and medium-sized amniotes (reptiliomorphs and reptiles). The tetrapod ichnofauna from the Bogdanka Coal Mine is similar in composition to Pennsylvanian ichnofaunas from Europe and North America.
Acknowledgements
This study started in 2003, after the author visit and first discoveries in the Bogdanka Coal Mine. Special thanks to Katarzyna Zaremba-Niedźwiedzka (Uppsala, Sweden) for the help during fieldworks in 2003 and Jan Niedźwiedzki (Piotrowice, Poland) for the help during fieldworks in 2003 and 2004. The manager of the Bogdanka Coal Mine (Lubelski Węgiel Bogdanka S.A.) is thanked for allowing access to the old mounds located at the mine area. Thanks to Gerard Gierliński (Warsaw, Poland) and Sebastian Voigt (Freiberg, Germany) for their comments about the manuscript and specimens described in this paper. The author is currently funded by a grant awarded to P. E. Ahlberg (Uppsala University).