Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 7, 2026

Hatcherichnus

Hatcherichnus is a trace fossil ichnogenus from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western North America and Europe. The type material is from the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation in southeastern Utah, although the name is in honor of John Bell Hatcher, who illustrated a referred specimen from the Morrison of Garden Park, Colorado, in 1903. The type specimen consists of natural casts of the manus and pes, plus a tail trace, preserved in the roof of a uranium mine. These traces are believed to be those of swimming or floating neosuchian crocodyliforms.

Last revised
Jun 7, 2026
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Hatcherichnus
Trace fossil classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Order: Crocodilia
Ichnogenus: †Hatcherichnus
Foster and Lockley, 1997

Hatcherichnus is a trace fossil ichnogenus from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western North America and Europe.1 The type material is from the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation in southeastern Utah, although the name is in honor of John Bell Hatcher, who illustrated a referred specimen from the Morrison of Garden Park, Colorado, in 1903. The type specimen consists of natural casts of the manus and pes, plus a tail trace, preserved in the roof of a uranium mine.2 These traces are believed to be those of swimming or floating neosuchian crocodyliforms.2

References

References

  1. Avanzini, Marco; Piñuela, Laura; Ruiz-Omeñaca, J. Ignacio; Garcia-Ramos, Jose (June 2010). "The crocodyle track Hatcherichnus from the Upper Jurassic of Asturias (Spain)". N M Mus Nat Hist Sci Bull. 51 – via ResearchGate.
  2. Foster, John; Lockley, Martin (1997). "Probable crocodilian tracks and traces from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of eastern Utah". Ichnos. 5 (2): 121–129. Bibcode:1997Ichno...5..121F. doi:10.1080/10420949709386411.