Large Cretaceous mammal footprints discovered in Santa Catarina

Fossilized footprints discovered in Turvo, Santa Catarina, reveal the presence of large mammaliaformes and their close relatives from the Early Cretaceous period. The tracks, found on two sandstone plates collected from the AR Mineração quarry, represent the largest footprints of this type ever documented in the Early Cretaceous of Gondwana.

According to a study published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, the tracks were made in what was then the Botucatu desert, a vast dune system. The footprints feature four toes with short, rounded impressions, suggesting the animals moved on four legs. Researchers have classified the marks within the ichnofamily Chelichnopodidae.

These findings challenge the common association of early mammals with strictly small-bodied animals. The size of these impressions exceeds all previously described mammal-related tracks in the Botucatu Formation, indicating that larger body sizes emerged earlier and more frequently in the evolutionary history of the group than previously recognized.