{{Short description|Trace fossil}} {{Ichnobox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|318.1|66.043}} | taxon = Kouphichnium | image = Mesolimulus_walchi_with_trace.JPG | image_caption = ''Mesolimulus walchi'' with trackway | authority = Nopcsa, 1923 | synonyms = * ''Protornis'' <small>Jaekel, 1929</small> (preocc.) }}
'''''Kouphichnium''''' is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to limulids (horseshoe crabs). ''Kouphichnium'' fossils resemble the footprints of birds, sometimes in conjunction with a medial line,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ichnology/Kouphichnium.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015192216/http://envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ichnology/Kouphichnium.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-10-15|title=''Kouphichnium'' isp.|first=Anthony J.|last=Martin}}</ref> and were initially thought to be bird or pterosaur tracks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jaekel |first=O. |date=1929-11-01 |title=Die Spur eines neuen Urvogels (Protornis bavarica) und deren Bedeutung für die Urgeschichte der Vögel |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03042727 |journal=Paläontologische Zeitschrift |language=de |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=201–238 |doi=10.1007/BF03042727 |bibcode=1929PalZ...11..201J |issn=|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The footprints are now believed to be the imprints of specialized limulid appendages, called pushers, terminating in four plates, used to push against the sediment. The medial line is left by the animal's telson. This ichnogenus is registered in the Carboniferous to the Cretaceous, in marine marginal environments in Tennessee, the United States and in Poland, as well as non-marine environments of Argentina and England, among others.<ref>Aceñolaza, F. G., & Buatois, L. A. (1991). Trazas fósiles del Paleozoico superior continental argentino. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=g6w033j_gs8C Ameghiniana]'', 28, 89-108. {{in lang|es}}</ref> The genus contains five species, ''K. arizonae'', ''K. cordifomnis'', ''K. lithographicum'', ''K. minusculum'' and ''K. walchi''.
==See also== * List of xiphosuran genera * Timeline of pterosaur research * Trace fossil * Mortichnia
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Arthropod trace fossils
{{trace-fossil-stub}} Category:Taxa named by Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás