A short trackway of tridactyl fossil footprints discovered in the Kaipara region of the North Island of New Zealand

ABSTRACT Fossil trackways record snapshots of the lives of ancient animals. A short trackway of unwebbed tridactyl footprints from the Kaipara region of the North Island of New Zealand contributes to the growing record of fossil footprints discovered in Aotearoa. An Early‐middle Pleistocene age (1 ± 0.5 Ma) and a high‐tidal, sandy beach setting are inferred for the trackway. The trackmaker for the continuous series of four convex hyporelief footprint casts and one isolated concave epirelief impression was likely a species within Dinornithiformes. The preserved trackway sequence is approximately 970 mm long and the footprint hyporeliefs have an average length, width and depth of 203.8, 180.5 and 8.9 mm respectively. Measurements of tarsometatarsi from four species within Dinornithiformes were collected for comparison. The distal width of the tarsometatarsus estimated for the trackmaker ranged from 86.2 mm to 90.8 mm, which was larger than the distal tarsometatarsus widths measured for adult Anomalopteryx didiformis, Euryapteryx curtus and Pachyornis geranoides , smaller than Dinornis novaezealandiae , and most similar in size to Emeus crassus . Measurements of footprint size and spacing were used to estimate the body mass, hip height and walking speed of the currently unidentified trackmaker. A new ichnotaxon for the trackway is proposed.