Geological setting of two quaternary footprint sites, western South Australia

A variety of trace fossils including human, avian and macropodid footprints are preserved in two coastal settings of different ages near Clare Bay, South Australia. Macropodid and other tracks occur in laminated littoral sediments of Late Pleistocene age (ca. 110 000 years BP). They are preserved beneath a former prograding coastal fore‐dune complex now being exposed by shoreline erosion and regression. Human footprints, together with tracks of emus, kangaroos and wallabies, are present a few kilometres inland on the margin of a coastal saline lake. They originated about 5000 years ago, when soft dolomitic and calcitic marls formed from groundwater seepage and evaporation around gypseous lake margins. Preservation resulted from subsequent lithificat ion of the marl. The footprints have been subject to continuing exposure since formation but are remarkably well preserved.