The oldest fossil bird-like footprints from the upper Triassic of southern Africa.

Footprint morphology reflects the anatomy of the trackmaker's foot and is direct evidence for the animal's behaviour. Consequently, fossil tracks can be used to infer ancient diversity, ethology, and evolutionary trends. This is particularly useful for deep-time intervals during which the early history of an animal group is reliant upon limited fossil skeletal material.

Basal sauropodomorph locomotion: ichnological lessons from the Late Triassic trackways of bipeds and quadrupeds (Elliot Formation, main Karoo Basin).

Using modern ichnological and stratigraphic tools, we reinvestigate two iconic sauropodomorph-attributed tetradactyl ichnogenera, and , and their stratigraphic occurrences in the middle Upper Triassic of Lesotho. These tracks have been reaffirmed and are stratigraphically well-constrained to the lower Elliot Formation (Stormberg Group, Karoo Basin) with a maximum depositional age range of <219-209 Ma (Norian). This represents the earliest record of basal sauropodomorph trackways in Gondwana, if not globally.

A new specimen elucidates the unique ventilatory macroevolution of ornithischian dinosaurs.

Ornithischian dinosaurs were ecologically prominent herbivores of the Mesozoic Era that achieved a global distribution by the onset of the Cretaceous. The ornithischian body plan is aberrant relative to other ornithodiran clades, and crucial details of their early evolution remain obscure. We present a new, fully articulated skeleton of the early branching ornithischian .

Tracking the Pliensbachian-Toarcian Karoo firewalkers: Trackways of quadruped and biped dinosaurs and mammaliaforms.

The Karoo igneous rocks represent one of the largest continental flood basalt events (by volume) on Earth, and are not normally associated with fossils remains. However, these Pliensbachian-Toarcian lava flows contain sandstone interbeds that are particularly common in the lower part of the volcanic succession and are occasionally fossiliferous. On a sandstone interbed in the northern main Karoo Basin, we discovered twenty-five tridactyl and tetradactyl vertebrate tracks comprising five trackways.

A micro X-ray computed tomography dataset of fossil echinoderms in an ancient obrution bed: a robust method for taphonomic and palaeoecologic analyses.

Background: Taphonomic and palaeoecologic studies of obrution beds often employ conventional methods of investigation such as physical removal and extraction of fossils from their host rock (matrix) by mechanical preparation. This often-destructive method is not suitable for studying mold fossils, which are voids left in host rocks due to dissolution of the original organism in post-depositional processes.

Findings: Microcomputed tomography (µCT) scan data of 24 fossiliferous rock samples revealed thousands of Paleozoic echinoderms.

A Giant Dinosaur from the Earliest Jurassic of South Africa and the Transition to Quadrupedality in Early Sauropodomorphs.

Sauropod dinosaurs were dominant, bulk-browsing herbivores for 130 million years of the Mesozoic, attaining gigantic body masses in excess of 60 metric tons [1, 2]. A columnar-limbed, quadrupedal posture enabled these giant body sizes [3], but the nature of the transition from bipedal sauropodomorph ancestors to derived quadrupeds remains contentious [4-6]. We describe a gigantic, new sauropodomorph from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa weighing 12 metric tons and representing a phylogenetically independent origin of sauropod-like body size in a non-sauropod.

Digital reconstruction of the mandible of an adult with insight into the tooth replacement process and diet.

Fragmentary caudal ends of the left and right mandible assigned to , an early ornithischian, was recently discovered in the continental red bed succession of the upper Elliot Formation (Lower Jurassic) at Likhoele Mountain (Mafeteng District) in Lesotho. Using micro-CT scanning, this mandible could be digitally reconstructed in 3D. The replacement teeth within the better preserved (left) dentary were visualised.

Sedimentology and ichnology of the Mafube dinosaur track site (Lower Jurassic, eastern Free State, South Africa): a report on footprint preservation and palaeoenvironment.

Footprint morphology (e.g., outline shape, depth of impression) is one of the key diagnostic features used in the interpretation of ancient vertebrate tracks.