ADDITIONAL FOSSIL VERTEBRATE TRACKS IN NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AREAS

Fossil vertebrate tracks were first inventoried from National Park Service areas in 1998 and vertebrate tracks ranging in age from the Pennsylvanian through Pleistocene/Holocene were identified in 19 National Park Service areas. Since the completion of that initial inventory, fossil vertebrate tracks have been identified in nine additional NPS areas, for a total of 28 NPS areas preserving fossil vertebrate tracks. The new discoveries include five additional parks with Mesozoic tracks (Aniakchak National Monument, Denali National Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Navajo National Monument and Wupatki National Monument) and four with Cenozoic tracks (Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Oregon Caves National Monument). These new discoveries include the first evidence of Cretaceous dinosaurs in western Alaska (Aniakchak National Monument) and well-preserved claw marks in cave sediments of Oregon Caves National Monument. This paper also highlights new information regarding fossil tracks in parks identified in the initial 1998 inventory including a highly unusual trackway morphology recently discovered in Grand Canyon National Park, a potentially new ichnotaxa from the significant Copper Canyon tracksite in Death Valley National Park and one of the oldest Mesozoic tracksites in North America from Zion National Park. All together the rich fossil record of vertebrate ichnites in National Park Service areas include tracks of amphibians, ornithischian and saurischian dinosaurs, birds, artiodactyls, perissodactyls, carnivores and proboscidians. Continued research into the vertebrate ichnofossils of National Park Service areas will undoubtedly contribute additional discoveries and increased knowledge regarding these important paleonto- logical resources.