Dinosaur footprints from the Thaiat ridge and their palaeoenvironmental background, Jaisalmer Basin, Rajastan, India

Two dinosaur footprints: Eubrontes cf. giganteus and Grallator tenuis, both attributed to theropods, have been found in the Lower Jurassic Thaiat Member of the Lathi Formation at the Thaiat ridge, near Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan, India. The footprints were left in sediments of a tidal origin, located in profile a few meters above a marked transgressive/flooding surface. They show different states of preservation – the smaller Grallator tenuis represents a well-preserved concave epirelief footprint on the upper surface of a sandstone containing nerineid gastropod shells, while the bigger Eubrontes cf. giganteus footprint shows a rare state of preservation as a positive epirelief on the top of a calcareous sandstone bed, where recent erosion exposed the footprint cast by removing the mud above and around the footprint. The Thaiat ridge section has been amended in its lower part, to indicate the marked transgressive surface. Geochemical analyses and calculated weathering indices (such as CIA) show that the hinterland climate was seasonal to semi-arid during deposition of that part of the succession.