page_title: 20th century in ichnology
section_title: 1980s
hierarchical_section_title: 20th century in ichnology / 1980s
caption_attribution_description: Português: 9 pegadas de Brasilichnium elusivum e 8 pegadas(4 pares) de um Pequeno Mamífero Saltador do período Jurássico/Cretáceo(80/90 Milhões de anos) , localizada na região de Araraquara - Exposto no MAPA
context_page_description: The 20th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1900 and 1999 in the scientific study of trace fossils, the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms, especially fossil footprints. Significant fossil trackway discoveries began almost immediately after the start of the 20th century with the 1900 discovery at Ipolytarnoc, Hungary of a wide variety of bird and mammal footprints left behind during the early Miocene. Not long after, fossil Iguanodon footprints were discovered in Sussex, England, a discovery that probably served as the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
  Several enduring mysteries from the 19th century continued to vex ichnologists, like the identity of the Chirotherium trackmaker. Renowned paleontologist Franz von Nopcsa attributed the ichnogenus to the prosauropod dinosaur Plateosaurus, despite an apparent mismatch between its number of toes and the preserved digit traces of Chirotherium. Von Nopcsa explained the discrepancy by arguing that one of the impressions in the Chirotherium tracks was left by a soft tissue structure that did not fossilize.
context_section_description: Mid: Dinosaur footprints were first reported from the Laramie Formation.
  1980
  Paul Ellenberger reported the presence of Eocene artiodactyl and bird tracks near Garrigues, France. There were several kinds of mammals tracks, including Anoplotheripus, Diplartiopus, Hyaenodontipus, Lophiopus, Palaeotheripus, and Ucetipodisus.
  A nine meter long Pleistocene bear trackway was reported from Lake County, Oregon. The tracks themselves were about 40 cm long, suggesting a trackmaker roughly the size of a large modern bear. These tracks may have been left by an Arctotherium.
  Olsen argued that the ichnogenera Grallator, Anchisauripus, and Eubrontes actually represent a growth series.
  R. L. Laury described fossil "tracks associated with mammoth skeletons" in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
  Walter P. Coombs, Jr. interpreted some unusual Eubrontes tracks from Dinosaur State Park of Rocky Hill, Connecticut as traces left by a swimming theropod because the tracks only preserved impressions from the tips of the animal's toes as if the rest of its body weight was supported by water.
  1981
  Alfred Hendricks named the ichnospecies Rotundichnus munchehagensis for some "wide-gauge" sauropod tracks preserved in the rocks of the Berriasian-aged Buckeburg Formation. Seven trails were present in all and their arrangement showed evidence for herding behavior among the trackmakers.
  Giuseppe Leonardi erected the new ichnogenus and species Brasilichnium elusivum to classify the Early Jurassic proto-mammal tracks from the Botucatu Sandstone of Brazil.
  Thulborn criticized the idea that the hadrosaur tracks reported by Brown in 1938 were left by a running animal.
  1982
  Demathieu and Haubold described the new Early Triassic ichnogenus and species Isochirotherium archaem from Germany. As only the hind prints are preserved in this trackway it may represent the oldest evidence in the world for the existence of animals with bipedal gaits. However, while intriguing, their remains the possibility that the track maker was a quadruped and its foreprints eroded away before the trail was discovered.
  Demathieu and Marc Weidmann described a new Triassic fossil tracksite from Swtizerland called the Vieux Emosson tracksite.
  1983
  Geology student Jeff Pittman recognized that the "potholes" hindering excavation equipment traffic through a gypsum mine in southeastern Arkansas were actually sauropod dinosaur footprint.
  1984
  Hartmut Haubold published the Saurierfahrten. Haubold was a German ichnologist, and the Saurierfahrten a specialist's handbook for identifying Carboniferous and Permian fossil footprints. It was the only publication of its type in the world at the time and only available in German.
  Paul Olsen and Peter Galton argued that Ellenberger had oversplit the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic ichnotaxa he studied and that many of the kinds of tracks he regarded as distinct were the tracks previously described in eastern North America.
  J. E. Andrews and J. D. Hudson reported the first dinosaur tracks to be scientifically documented in Scotland. The tracks are three-toed and preserved in the Middle Jurassic Leate Shale.~144~
  George Demathieu and others described an Oligocene bird and mammal track site from southeastern France. Three different mammalian ichnotaxa were present. One was an artiodactyl track they named Bifidipes velox. The second was the largest of the three, Ronzotherichnus, was apparently left by the rhinoceros Ronzotherium. A creodont or early carnivoran left behind the third kind of tracks, which the researchers named Sarcotherichnus enigmaticus. They named the bird tracks at the site Pulchravipes magnificus.
  Kevin Padian and Paul Olsen reinterpreted the supposed pterosaur tracks named Pteraichnus from the Morrison Formation of Utah as crocodilian tracks.
  1985
  Luis Aguirrezabala reported the presence of nine parallel trails left by Hypsilophodon or one of its close relatives in Lower Cretaceous rocks of La Rioja, Spain. This tracksite is now known as the Valdevajes site.
  1986
  An international symposium for paleontologists performing research on "Dinosaur Trac
caption: Brasilichnium
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