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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 63 (1979)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 485

Last Page: 486

Title: Tracks and Substrate Reworking by Terrestrial Vertebrates in Quaternary Sediments of Kenya: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Leo F. Laporte, Anna K. Behrensmeyer

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Reworking of sedimentary substrates by terrestrial vertebrates, especially hoofed herbivores, has stratigraphic significance comparable to that of marine sediments by benthic invertebrates. Environmental analysis of the Pliocene-Pleistocene Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya reveals many vertebrate footprints and trackways in fluvial and lake-margin strata. Some beds are completely reworked by trampling of many animals, presumably ungulates, with subsequent disarrangement of primary grain fabric and sedimentary structures. Examination of footprints and game trails in similar modern Kenyan environments, and comparison with those in older sediments, indicate characteristics useful for their recognition elsewhere. Preservation is best in mud and sand interbeds of medium hickness where the animal foot punches out a plug of coherent surface sediment (usually mud) and presses it into underlying units of contrasting lithology (usually sand). Thicker and less coherent muds simply mold the foot. In both situations the print is flat to concave upward with a discontinuous rim that surrounds a low spot where later wind- or water-laid sediments and bone fragments may concentrate. Further trampling of coherent surface mud disturbs the ground surface allowing wind and water to remove the

End_Page 485------------------------------

loose sand below, thereby creating shallow erosional depressions on the landscape. Heavy trampling in wet interbeds of sand and mud homogenizes the previously distinct layers into a thicker, more massive unit, typically without any obvious tracks preserved. Although we have identified individual prints of hippo and antelope--and a four-print trackway of Homo erectus--exact taxonomic assignments are not yet easily made.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists