Award Date
1-1-2002
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Geoscience
First Committee Member
Stephen M. Rowland
Number of Pages
96
Abstract
The Thumb Member of the Miocene Horse Spring Formation contains a vertebrate track assemblage of mammal (camel and carnivore) and avian footprints. Camelid tracks identified are Lamaichnum alfi, Lamaichnum macropodum, and Lamaichnum etoromorphum. Carnivore tracks include canid tracks (Canipeda sp.) and a possible felid track ( Felipeda? sp.). One canid trackway records a c-shaped pattern, which is apparently the fist documentation of a rotary gallop gait in Miocene canids. Five types of bird tracks, four of which are previously undescribed, also occur. They are: (1) Alaripeda lofgreni, (2) Avipeda sp. A, (3) Avipeda sp. B, (4) Anatipeda sp. A, and (5) a new, previously undescribed track type in the Morphofamily Gruipedidae; A summary of the eight known Miocene track-bearing formations (including the Horse Spring Formation) in the western United States indicates that an ichnofacies of Miocene mammal and bird tracks associated with lacustrine deposits is beginning to become apparent.
Keywords
Bird; Clark County; Formation; Horse; Mammal; Miocene; Nevada; Spring; Trackways
Controlled Subject
Paleontology; Geology; Paleontology
File Format
File Size
2652.16 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have the full text removed from Digital Scholarship@UNLV, please submit a request to digitalscholarship@unlv.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.
Repository Citation
Jones, Michele Marie, "Mammal and bird trackways in the Miocene Horse Spring Formation, Clark County, Nevada" (2002). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1430.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/0zc4-k2yp
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
