A Temnospondyl Trackway from the Early Mesozoic of Western Gondwana and Its Implications for Basal Tetrapod Locomotion
Figure 8
Secondary overstep in a ‘long-coupled’ tetrapod trackmaker.
The illustration shows the underside of a stereospondyl as it progresses along a hypothetical trackway surface. The lower portion of the illustration shows the sequence of impressions made by the right and left manus (RM, LM) and pes (RP, LP) leading up to the moment just before the left pes contacts the substrate. Note that in this ‘long-coupled’ form the pes oversteps the manus of the previous stride. We infer that the Episcopopus trackmaker made tracks in this fashion.