The Oldest Camel Footprints from Mexico

Camel footprints have a well preserved record in Neogene strata from North America, including Mexico, however their Paleogene record is much less known. Here, we describe the oldest camel footprints from Mexico, located in the outskirts of Tezoatlán de Segura y Luna, northwestern Oaxaca, southern Me...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Eduardo Jiménez-Hidalgo, Rosalía Guerrero-Arenas
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:México
Institución:Universidad del Mar
Repositorio:Redalyc-UMAR
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:94362562006
Acceso en línea:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=94362562006
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/943/94362562006/
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/943/94362562006/html/
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/943/94362562006/94362562006.epub
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/943/94362562006/movil
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ciencias de la Tierra
Eocene
Oaxaca
Mixteca
Camelidae
Oligocene
Descripción
Sumario:Camel footprints have a well preserved record in Neogene strata from North America, including Mexico, however their Paleogene record is much less known. Here, we describe the oldest camel footprints from Mexico, located in the outskirts of Tezoatlán de Segura y Luna, northwestern Oaxaca, southern Mexico. The camel footprints are preserved as concave epirelief in fine-grained tuffaceous sandstone of the late Eocene-early Oligocene Huajuapan Formation. These footprints display the diagnostic features of Lamaichnum guanicoe, such as bidigital tracks with pointed anterior ends and rounded posterior ends, with digit impressions that do not converge anteriorly and footprints that have digit imprints connected. Potential track makers include Paratylopus, Paralabis and Pseudolabis. The concave axial surface and nail imprints of the Oaxacan footprints, indicate that the track makers shared some anatomical foot features with extant camels, suggesting that some characteristics of the peculiar camel foot had already evolved by the late Eocene-early Oligocene.