Genus
Ichnogenus Extinct

Breviparopus

Dutuit and Ouazzou 1980

Breviparopus is the name given to an ichnogenus of dinosaur, having been made by an unknown genus of sauropod. As an ichnogenus, the taxon is represented by a 90-metre (295 ft) long series of fossil tracks, or ichnites, found in the spring of 1979 in the Atlas Mountains of present-day Morocco. At the time, this area would have been part of the splitting Gondwana supercontinent. The animal that produced the Breviparopus tracks is rumored to be one of the largest dinosaurs, though its exact size has been the subject of much debate.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
8
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
🦴
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Saurischia Unranked clade
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Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
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Massopoda Unranked clade
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Sauropodiformes Unranked clade
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Sauropoda Unranked clade
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Parabrontopodidae Family
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Breviparopus Genus
Fossil sites 8 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
3
🇨🇭 Switzerland
3
🇲🇦 Morocco
2
Geological formations
Reuchenette
3
Saltwick
2
Ich Timellaline/J’bel Bou Akrabène
1
Lealt Shale
1
Iouaridène
1
Temporal distribution
Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)
3
Oxfordian (161.5–154.8 Ma)
1
Bathonian (168.2–165.3 Ma)
2
Aalenian (174.7–170.9 Ma)
2
Species (1)
Breviparopus taghbaloutensis 162 Ma
Bibliography
Original description
J.-M. Dutuit and A. Ouazzou. 1980. Découverte d'une piste de Dinosaure sauropode sur le site d'empreintes de Demnat (Haut-Atlas marocain). Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, Nouvelle Série 139:95-102
Bibliography (6)
P. E. dePolo, S. L. Brusatte, and T. J. Challands, D. Foffa, D. A. Ross, M. Wilkinson, H. Yi. 2018. A sauropod-dominated tracksite from Rubha nam Brathairean (Brothers’ Point), Isle of Skye, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 54(1):1-12 DOI ↗
M. Romano and M. A. Whyte. 2012. Information on the foot morphology, pedal skin texture and limb dynamics of sauropods: evidence from the ichnological record of the Middle Jurassic of the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, UK. Zubía 30:45-92
D. Marty, M. Belvedere, and C. A. Meyer, P. Mietto, G. Paratte, C. Lovis, B. Thüring. 2010. Comparative analysis of Late Jurassic sauropod trackways from the Jura Mountains (NW Switzerland) and the central High Atlas Mountains (Morocco): implications for sauropod ichnotaxonomy. Historical Biology 22(1–3):109-133 DOI ↗
C. A. Meyer and B. Thüring. 2005. Mind the “Middle Jurassic” gap—bone versus track record in dinosaurs. 3rd Geoscience Meeting, Zurich
P. O. J. Mouchet. 1993. A new sauropods printsite from the Upper Jurassic of northern Switzerland ("Kimmeridgian"; Montbautier, Kt. Bern). Revue de Paléobiologie 12(2):345-349
J.-M. Dutuit and A. Ouazzou. 1980. Découverte d'une piste de Dinosaure sauropode sur le site d'empreintes de Demnat (Haut-Atlas marocain). Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, Nouvelle Série 139:95-102