Walk, Wade, or Swim? Vertebrate Traces on an Early Permian Lakeshore

A new vertebrate track site in the Lower Permian Wellington Formation in north-central Oklahoma is described wherein tracks are found on a single dolomite bedding plane that can be traced along more than 1.6 km of disconnected out-crops. In excess of 1,400 tetrapod tracks, including 16 track-ways, are documented. Because of extramorphological fac-tors, it was not possible to identify ichnogenera with cer-tainty, but ®ve distinct morphotypes are described, and their possible af®nities with known Permian ichnotaxa are given. All tracks appear to be undertracks of vertebrates walking on all fours, wading on their back legs, or swim-ming. It is proposed that one of these morphotypes was made by a web-footed trackmaker. Aspects of the ichnofauna and lithologic features suggest a lacustrine paleoenviron-ment for the track site, and could warrant further subdivi-sion of the redbed ichnofacies