Stegopodus

Stegopodus is an ichnogenus erected in 1998 for the second set of stegosaur tracks from the Morrison Formation. The tracks were found near Arches National Park, also in Utah. Unlike the first, this trackway preserved traces of the forefeet. Fossil remains indicate that stegosaurs have four digits on the forefeet and three weight-bearing digits on the hind feet. From this, paleontologists were able to successfully predict the appearance of stegosaur tracks in 1990, six years in advance of the first actual discovery of Morrison stegosaur tracks. Since the erection of Stegopodus, more trackways have been found, however none have preserved traces of the front feet, and stegosaur traces remain rare.

Stegopodus

Matthew Martyniuk · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
StegosauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 168.2 Mya to 143.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 170.9 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 1 of 4 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 4 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 4 occurrences172–170 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences163–160 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences160–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–155 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences155–153 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences153–150 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–145 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences145–143 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences141–138 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences138–136 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences119–116 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences109–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168.2 Mya143.1 Mya172 Mya99 Mya

4 occurrences of Stegopodus on record. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Morrison — 38.57°N, 109.45°WSousa — 6.73°S, 38.32°WChuanjie — 24.97°N, 102.04°EOued El Atchane — 33.32°N, 4.71°W

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The named rock units Stegopodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Stegopodus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Stegopodus

Credit
Matthew Martyniuk
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Stegopodus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itStegosauria through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lockley and Hunt 1998