FEEDING TRACES ASSOCIATED WITH BIRD TRACKS FROM THE LOWER CRETACEOUS HAMAN FORMATION, REPUBLIC OF KOREA

The bird track localities of the Republic of Korea are among the richest and most diverse avian tracksites in the world; however, no behavioral studies have been conducted with them. This paper examines the association of invertebrate traces, avian footprints, and small, enigmatic elongate and doubl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Palaios 2010-11, Vol.25 (11), p.730-741
Main Authors: FALK, AMANDA R, HASIOTIS, STEPHEN T, MARTIN, LARRY D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal morphology
Arenicolites
Asia
Aves
Beak
behavior
Birds
Chordata
Cretaceous
Far East
feeding
Foraging
Fossils
Genera
Geology
Haman Formation
ichnofossils
Invertebrata
Invertebrates
Jinju Formation
Korea
Koreanaornis hamanensis
Lower Cretaceous
Mesozoic
morphology
Paleontology
Sediments
South Korea
Tetrapoda
Trace fossils
tracks
Vertebrata
vertebrate
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Summary:The bird track localities of the Republic of Korea are among the richest and most diverse avian tracksites in the world; however, no behavioral studies have been conducted with them. This paper examines the association of invertebrate traces, avian footprints, and small, enigmatic elongate and double-oval traces from silicone casts (KS001 and KS064) taken from two specimens from the Haman Formation near Jinju. Two distinct types of bird tracks are present: a larger type with a well-defined hallux impression on the majority of the tracks, Koreanaornis isp., and a smaller type without a clear hallux impression, K. hamanensis. Elongate traces interpreted to be peck marks and double-oval traces interpreted to be probe marks were found on KS001. The peck marks range from 4.0 to 11.2 mm long and average 7.6 mm in width. There are two distinct morphologies of probe marks which may represent different species or genera of birds. The large probe mark is 6.9 mm long and 2.9 mm wide, whereas the smaller probe marks are 4.5 mm long by 2.2 mm wide and 5.7 mm long by 3.0 mm wide, respectively. Invertebrate traces associated with the bird tracks and feeding traces include Cochlichnus, Steinichnus, and Arenicolites. This represents the first report of peck marks from a fossil bird track locality.
ISSN:0883-1351
1938-5323
DOI:10.2110/palo.2010.p10-057r