Large Laoporus Permian Tetrapod Footprints Ichnofossil

Description: The trackway on this irregular flat plate features twelve large Laoporus footprints. In particular, the right hand side footprints show excellent indentation and claw marks.

Laoporus is a track made by a quadrupedal tetrapod vertebrate and has been attributed to synapsids. The legs of these animals were under the body, not out to the side. The mammals of today are but one branch of the Synapsida, a great vertebrate group with a 300 million year history. Pre-mammalian synapsids dominated the land vertebrate fauna of the Permian and early Triassic before losing ground to the diversifying dinosaurs and other archosaurs. These pre-mammalian groups of synapsids have at times been called "mammal-like reptiles". This term is however not accurate. None of the synapsids were actually reptiles. These tracks were probably made when the animal was walking across a sandy matrix covered by very shallow water.

Please keep in mind that appropriate lighting is essential to showcase a trackway plate. Small, directed spotlights to display shadows and the contours of the claw marks and footprints are essential.

This trackway plate was legally collected on private land with the owner’s permission.