Cretaceous dinosaur tracks in the Brenton Formation, Western Cape

Dinosaur tracks, probably aged ~132 Ma, have been identified in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, where they occur within the Brenton Formation of the Cretaceous Uitenhage Group. At least one dinosaur bone has previously been identified from the Brenton Formation. Tracks are evident both in profile in low cliff exposures and as pedestalled surface tracks or penetrative undertracks on a mudstone/siltstone surface that is ephemerally exposed within an intertidal zone. The trackmaker assemblage is interpreted to include theropods, possibly ornithopods and possibly sauropods. These form the probable youngest reported dinosaur tracks in southern Africa, the second record of dinosaur tracks from the southern African Cretaceous, and the second record from the Western Cape Province. The first dinosaur tracks to be identified in the Western Cape Province were recently reported from Robberg Formation deposits (also from the Uitenhage Group) aged ~140 Ma.