First occurrence of footprints of large therapsids from the Upper Permian of European Russia

Large footprints of terrestrial tetrapods have been found in the Cis-Urals region of European Russia. The footprint horizon is in Late Permian (Changhsingian) deposits of the Vyatkian Gorizont (uppermost Tatarian) approximately 50 m below the local Permian/Triassic boundary. Seventeen randomly orientated footprints were excavated and are referred to the ichnospecies Brontopus giganteus. The footprints were emplaced in a reddish-brown mudstone that was deposited from suspension beneath shallow ponded water in a floodplain environment. They were subsequently cast by the base of the overlying fine-grained sandstone, which was deposited from a sheet-flood event. The footprints were produced by a large therapsid, possibly a dinocephalian, but more probably a dicynodont, and represent the first ichnological record of the Therapsida from the Upper Permian of Russia.