TROPY DINOZAURÓW Z WCZESNOJURAJSKIEGO EKOSYSTEMU Z SOŁTYKOWA W GÓRACH ŚWIĘTOKRZYSKICH

Abstract

DINOSAUR TRACKS FROM THE EARLY JURASSIC ECOSYSTEM OF SOŁTYKÓW, HOLY CROSS MOUNTAINSAbstract. This paper presents reconstruction of the Early Jurassic dinosaurs assemblage (about 200 million years old) based on paleoichnological data (trace fossils – tracks of dinosaurs). In 1997–2009, the author collected paleontological material counting several tens of specimens from the Sołtyków clay-pit and made photographic documentation in the site, as well as replica plaster (casts) from specimens left in the field. This material contains predatory dinosaur tracks and tracks of herbivorous sauropodomorphs and early ornithischia. This publication also includes description of the abiotic environment and other paleontological finds (e.g., insects, bivalves fossils) and paleoichnological finds (invertebrate trace fossils). The Early Jurassic deposits from Sołtyków represent a unique record of an ecosystem of in-land environment connected with the development of an anastomosing-meandering river and adjacent flood plains. This locality provides paleoichnological data valuable for determining biodiversity, evolutionary position and biology of the early dinosaurs and other terrestrial vertebrates (mammal-like reptiles, early mammals, lepidosaurs, pterosaurs and early crocodylomorphs).