A Batrachichnus salamandroides trackway from the Minto Formation of central New Brunswick, Canada: implications for alternative trackmaker interpretations

Abstract

A new specimen of Batrachichnus salamandroides was recovered from a recently discovered fossil-bearingsite situated along the southern shore of Grand Lake, New Brunswick, among a diverse ichnofaunal assemblagefrom the Middle Pennsylvanian (upper Bolsovian; lower Moscovian), upper Minto Formation. The identity ofthe tracemaker of this ichnogenus is reinterpreted as a composite of various late Paleozoic tetrapod taxa, basedon similarities of the postcranial skeletons, notably that of the manus and pes, of both temnospondyls and some“microsaurs”. These results indicate that the tracemaker of the monospecific ichnogenus Batrachnichus is notlimited solely to a temnospondyl tracemaker, as previously interpreted, and that some “microsaurs” should alsobe considered among tracemaker candidates for this ichnotaxon.