The First Arthropod Trackways in the Lower Triassic of Eastern Europe from the New Mansurovo Locality, Orenburg Region

Trace fossils are described from the Lower Triassic Gostevskaya Formation of the Mansurovo locality, Orenburg Region. They are represented by counter impressions at the lower contact of the sandstone with wave ripples. The ichnological characteristics of the trackways and their individual imprints are similar to the ichnospecies Diplichnites triassicus (Linck, 1943), which is widespread in fluvial and lake sediments of the Carboniferous–Triassic of Europe and North America. The most probable trace maker for D. triassicus is a representative of the group of branchiopod arthropods Notostraca, which moved in an aquatic environment. Most likely, a microbial mat developed on the surface of the sand substrate acted as a trace carrier and the arthropod trackways were subsequently preserved and buried with the direct involvement of the microbial mat