The Samana Suk Limestone is a Middle JurassicQureshi, Kalem Akhtar (2008). SHALLOW SHELF SEDIMENTATION OF THE JURASSIC SAMANA SUK LIMESTONE, KALA CHITTA RANGE, LESSER HIMALAYAS, PAKISTAN. Geol. Bull. Punjab Univ. 43, 2008. geological formation in Pakistan, cropping out across the Salt Range from the western side. The formation is thought to have once been a coastal environment. Dinosaur footprints and ammonites found in close proximity support this reading,Malkani, M. S. (2007). Trackways evidence of sauropod dinosaurs confronted by a theropod found from Middle Jurassic Samana Suk Limestone of Pakistan. Sindh University Research Journal (Science Series), 39(1), 1-14. and the sediments themselves were laid down across three distinct settings: open marine, lagoon and beach.
Fossil content Ammonites and belemnites are common within the Samana Suk Limestone. Indeterminate remains attributed to Dinosauria indet. and Theropoda indet. have also been recorded from the formation.
Dinosaur footprints A trackway of fifteen dinosaur footprints, known as the Mianwali trackway, was identified at Baroch Nala, Malakhel, near Mianwali by Muhammad Sadiq Malkani in 2006 and described the following year. It comprises four footprints attributed to a megalosauroid ("Samanadrinda surghari") and eleven to a sauropod ("Malakhelisaurus mianwali"). The site is also notable as the first trackway discovered in Asia to preserve wide-gauge sauropod tracks.
The trackway's condition has deteriorated significantly since its discovery. Coal mining and road construction destroyed all four theropod footprints shortly after 2007, and hydraulic machinery accounted for several of the sauropod footprints before 2011.
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