
The most accepted killing model for the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME) postulates that massive volcanic eruption (i.e., the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province) led to geologically rapid global warming, acid rain and ocean anoxia. On land, habitable zones were drastically reduced, due to the combined effects of heating, drought and acid rains. This hyperthermal had severe effects also on the paleobiogeography of several groups of organisms. Among those, the tetrapods, whose geographical distribution across the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) was the subject of controversy in a number of recent papers. We here describe and interpret a new Early Triassic (?Olenekian) archosauriform track assemblage from the Gardetta Plateau (Briançonnais, Western Alps, Italy) which, at the Permian-Triassic boundary, was placed at about 11° North. The tracks, both arranged in trackways and documented by single, well-preserved imprints, are assigned to Isochirotherium gardettensis ichnosp. nov., and are here interpreted as produced by a non-archosaurian archosauriform (erytrosuchid?) trackmaker. This new discovery provides further evidence for the presence of archosauriformes at low latitudes during the Early Triassic epoch, supporting a model in which the PTME did not completely vacate low-latitude lands from tetrapods that therefore would have been able to cope with the extreme hot temperatures of Pangaea mainland.
10125 Department of Paleontology, Climate warming; Extinction; Isochirotherium gardettensis n. ichnosp; Italy; Lower triassic, General Neuroscience, 2800 General Neuroscience, Genetics and Molecular Biology, 1100 General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Extinction, Lower triassic, General Medicine, Evolutionary Studies, Climate warming, 560 Fossils & prehistoric life, Italy, 1300 General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Biochemistry, 560 Fossils & prehistoric life, Isochirotherium gardettensis n. ichnosp, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
10125 Department of Paleontology, Climate warming; Extinction; Isochirotherium gardettensis n. ichnosp; Italy; Lower triassic, General Neuroscience, 2800 General Neuroscience, Genetics and Molecular Biology, 1100 General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Extinction, Lower triassic, General Medicine, Evolutionary Studies, Climate warming, 560 Fossils & prehistoric life, Italy, 1300 General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Biochemistry, 560 Fossils & prehistoric life, Isochirotherium gardettensis n. ichnosp, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
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