2025-B8 The nature, importance and protection of British vertebrate fossil track sites 

Overview

Fossil tracks and trackways (a type of trace fossil or ichnofossil) provide highly complementary information to the body fossil record. Tracks are more abundant than body fossils as organisms have one skeleton, but may leave many of tracks in their lifetime, often occur in stratigraphic levels where bone is rare, filling key gaps in the fossil record, and are more likely to be found in-situ, providing direct evidence of the organism in that location. They can also provide major insights into organisms’ distribution and palaeobiology, such as speed and nature of locomotion, anatomy, behaviour, life histories and interactions.  

The UK has a rich vertebrate fossil track record including amphibians, early reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, mammals and humans, spanning the Devonian (~380 Myrs ago) through to the Holocene. Fossil tracks have been recorded for hundreds of years, and many sites can be viewed in the present day, e.g., dinosaur tracks at Spyway Quarry, Dorset (Fig. 1). However, currently aspects of the paleontological conservation network do not fully reflect advances in ichnofauna scientific research and interpretation, nor does it adequately address the evolving management needs and prescriptions for emerging threats and the increasing significance of known impacts to trackway sites. 

Here, the student will conduct a comprehensive review of UK fossil vertebrate track(way) sites to understand their distribution in time and space, and to determine their scientific value in the context of their contribution to understanding of the fossil group, relative national and international importance of the records (in the context of the Geological Conservation Review ref Ellis et al, 1996)), and current conservation measures. Fieldwork will be undertaken at a series of in-situ case-study track sites, to help fill knowledge gaps, and to apply and develop different approaches to recording, monitoring, and conserving tracks. This work will form the evidence base for: [1] considering the merits and practicalities for fossil track site conservation and protection, to ensure that the most important sites are conserved appropriately, e.g., by local or national level protection, and [2] generate a best practice guide for the recording, monitoring and conserving of different types of track ​​sites.  

Figure 1: Example of dinosaur tracksite recently described using digital techniques. Top, Life reconstruction during the formation of the Spyway Quarry tracks in the Early Cretaceous showing large sauropods crossing a lagoonal environment. Artwork by Mark Witton. Bottom left, Photogrammetric model of track surface and bottom right, depth map of track surface highlighting tracks.