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Paleosols and Tetrapod Tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of the Northern Caucasus

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Abstract

Two Early Cretaceous (Aptian) paleosol (fossil soil, FPS) profiles in the Northern Caucasus in the close vicinity of the City of Kislovodsk, that contain plant roots preserved in situ, are discussed. Geochemical characteristics and composition of microbiomorphs are obtained for the most representative paleosol profile FPS-D1. The dinosaur tracks are examined in the Valanginian deposits in the same area. The tracks are assigned to several morphotypes, i.e., the ichnogenera Iguanodontipus Sarjeant et al., Megalosauripus sensu Lockley et al., and Macropodosaurus Zakharov. The author’s interpretation of paleogeographical and paleoecological environments of the dinosaur track localities and of paleosols is proposed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was carried out within the framework of the State Program of the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A great help in the work on the manuscript was provided by the reviewers A.G. Sennikov (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) and A.V. Ivanov (Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), to whom the author expresses his sincere and deep gratitude. I am very grateful to I.V. Novikov (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) for suggesting that this work be prepared for publication in the Paleontological Journal.

I am grateful to A.P. Ippolitov (GIN RAS) for help in identifying the remains of serpulids from the Aptian deposits, which are exposed within the Dzhinal and Borgustan ranges.

Invaluable assistance in organizing a visit to the location of the Olkhovka-1 ornithopod tracks was provided by the staff of the Kislovodsk Museum of Local Lore, the director of the museum S.S. Luzin, deputy director of the museum I.A. Lachikov and the head of the museum collection E.I. Zaitseva. The author is sincerely grateful to the staff of the North Caucasian Federal University (the City of Stavropol) V.M. Yakushev and M.P. Sherstyukov for discussing the problems of geomonitoring of the locations of dinosaur tracks and other tetrapods from the Kislovodsk region. I heartily thank my family members and the “Nautilus” paleontological club for participating in the fieldwork.

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  1. Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    S. V. Naugolnykh

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Naugolnykh, S.V. Paleosols and Tetrapod Tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of the Northern Caucasus. Paleontol. J. 56, 1491–1511 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030122110119

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