Laoporus Permian Quadrupedal Tetrapod Trackway

Description: 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. This trackway was probably made when the animal was walking across a sandy matrix covered by very shallow water. This footprint trackway was legally collected on private land by with the owner’s permission.