A review of footprints from the Wessex Formation (Wealden Group, Lower Cretaceous) at Hanover Point, the Isle of Wight, southern England JEREMY A. F. LOCKWOOD 1 *, MARTIN G. LOCKLEY 2 and STUART POND 1 1 Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK 2 Dinosaur Trackers Research Group, CB 172, University of Colorado at Denver, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA Received 6 February 2014; revised 7 May 2014; accepted for publication 7 May 2014 Hanover Point on the Isle of Wight, England, is a Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) site yielding a large number of dinosaur footprints from the Wessex Formation. These footprints, hitherto often referred to as ‘Iguanodon’ tracks, have generated interest and speculation since the beginning of the Victorian era. Today, Hanover Point largely yields sandstone casts (convex hyporeliefs) of footprints but also includes some impressions (concave epireliefs), a few of which form short trackways. The majority belongs to large ornithopods, many with foot lengths in excess of 50 cm. Theropods and the occasional thyreophoran track are also represented. The site represents the Wessex Formation within the Wealden Group and can be described ichnologically as a category 3a deposit. Most of the large ornithopod footprints have a distinctive quadripartite morphology and are best assigned to the ichnogenus Caririchnium or in some cases Amblydactylus. Few are morphologically compatible with Iguanodontipus which was described from pre-Wealden deposits and appears to be little represented in the Wealden ichnofaunas. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 707–720. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: Amblydactylus – Caririchnium – Iguanodon – Iguanodon bernissartensis – Iguanodontipus – Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis – Ornithopod. ABBREVIATIONS: FL, foot length; FW, foot width; IWCMS, Isle of Wight County Museums Service; MIWG, Museum Isle of Wight geology. INTRODUCTION The following paper documents more than 150 dino- saur footprints and casts, which became exposed by marine erosion at Hanover Point on the Isle of Wight (Fig. 1) between October 2006 and October 2013. Many are large natural casts of dinosaur footprints, a mode of preservation that almost exclusively pro- duces true tracks preserved as natural casts (convex hyporeliefs). The Wealden facies in this area can be described ichnologically as a category 3a deposit: i.e. footprints and bones occur in about equal proportions, and the footprints are generally consistent with known skeletal remains (Lockley, 1991; Lockley & Hunt, 1994). The ichnotaxonomic labels applied to these tracks and the importance of consistent termi- nology for comparative study are also reviewed. HANOVER POINT STRATIGRAPHY Hanover Point (Grid Reference SZ 370849–385834) is situated on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight where it forms part of an extended Site of Special Scientific Interest. The rocks at the Point comprise the oldest units of the Cretaceous Wealden Group on the Island, situated just above the Hauterivian– Barremian boundary (Allen & Wimbledon, 1991). *Corresponding author. E-mail: jlockwood156@aol.com The term ‘cast’ is used to denote a natural cast of a footprint (convex hyporelief). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 707–720. With 13 figures © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 707–720 707 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/113/3/707/2415979 by guest on 14 June 2022