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Dinosaur Tracks from the Caucasian Mineral Waters Country in the Context of the Study of Lower Cretaceous Paleosols of This Region

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Abstract

This article examines the geological and stratigraphic context of several types dinosaur tracks discovered in Lower Cretaceous deposits exposed in the vicinity of city of Kislovodsk (Caucasian Spa Country; Stavropol Krai). The tracks occur on the bedding surfaces of Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian) limestones, dolostones and marls. Two track morphotypes are described. Some ideas are proposed on the paleoclimatic and environmental conditions in the region during Early Cretaceous times. We suggest that the tracks were produced in a coastal plain in the littoral zone of a marine basin (possibly, a brackish lagoon) during a warm, seasonally dry climate.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wholeheartedly thank the Nautilus Paleontological Club, and my family members for participating in the field work. I want to express special gratitude to the director of the Kislovodsk Regional Museum S.S. Luzin, Deputy Director I.A. Lachikov and the curator of the museum collections E.I. Zaitseva for help in organizing visits to the locality of Olkhovka-1, as well as E.Yu. Baraboshkin (Lomonosov Moscow State University) for valuable consultations and A.P. Ippolitov (Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) for identifying the remains of serpulids from Aptian deposits of the vicinity of Kislovodsk.

Funding

This work was performed as part of the Government Assignment to the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences no. 0135-2019-0044, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 18-04-00322), and also with the financial support of the government subsidy to the Kazan (Volga) Federal University for increased competitiveness with the world’s leading research and educational centers.

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  1. Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    S. V. Naugolnykh

  2. Kazan Federal University, 420008, Kazan, Russia

    S. V. Naugolnykh

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  1. S. V. Naugolnykh
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Correspondence to S. V. Naugolnykh.

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Translated by D. Ponomarenko

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Naugolnykh, S.V. Dinosaur Tracks from the Caucasian Mineral Waters Country in the Context of the Study of Lower Cretaceous Paleosols of This Region. Paleontol. J. 54, 769–778 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030120070096

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