First record of footprints of terrestrial vertebrates from the Upper Permian of the Cis-Urals, Russia

The first tetrapod footprints from the Upper Permian of Russia are identified as Anthichnium ichnosp., on the basis of a short track from the Severodvinskian Gorizont (upper Tatarian, uppermost Permian) of Kulchomovo, 75 km east-north-east of Orenburg, southern Pre-Urals basin. The footprints are preserved in a ripple-marked sandstone unit, and appear to show an animal swimming, then crawling through wet marginal sediment, and finally moving on to firmer substrate. The sedimentary setting is an enclosed semiarid foreland basin, close to high mountains. An ephemeral stream-playa lake complex developed, with long emergent periods and short episodes of flooding and stream development. The footprints were probably produced by a small temnospondyl amphibian with four fingers and five toes.