Articles | Volume 24, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-101-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-24-101-2021
Research article
 | 
23 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 23 Apr 2021

Extensive vertebrate tracksite from the Upper Red Formation (middle–late Miocene), west Zanjan, northwestern Iran

Nasrollah Abbassi, Masoumeh Khoshyar, Spencer G. Lucas, and Farid Esmaeili

Cited articles

Abaie, I., Ansari, H. J., Badakhshan, A., and Jaafari, A.: History and development of the Alborz and Sarajeh fields of Central Iran, Bulletin of Iranian Petroleum Institute, 15, 561–574, 1964. 
Abbassi, N.: Vertebrate Footprints from the Miocene Upper Red Formation, Shokorchi Area, Zanjan Province, NW Iran, Ichnos, 17, 115–126, 2010. 
Abbassi, N.: Trace Fossils, Concepts and Applications, University of Zanjan publications, Zanjan, Iran, 2020a. 
Abbassi, N.: Carnivora tracks from the Agha Jari Formation (Upper Miocene-Pliocene), Bibi Hakimeh anticline, Zagros Mountains, Symposium of Geological Society of Iran, Geological Society of Iran publications, Tehran, Iran, 2020b. 
Abbassi, N. and Amini, A.: Ichnology of Miocene vertebrate footprints in the Upper Red Formation, Evan-e-key section, east Tehran, Iran, Geological Survey of Iran Scientific Quarterly Journal of Geoscience, 67, 56–67, 2008. 
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Short summary
The Chehrabad area, NW Iran, is known as the historical site of Saltmen mine dated to the Achaemenid and Sassanid eras. We, however, discovered animal footprints in NW Chehrabad (ca. 3 km NW of the Saltmen mine) on a very large slab. These footprints belong to the Miocene age and include canid, felid and bird tracks as old as 10.7 Ma. The canid footprint record establishes the late Miocene presence of canids on the Iranian Plateau as part of the Eurasia-wide “Eucyon event”.
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