Late Permian vertebrate tracks from the Tumlin Sandstone of Poland - a commentary on some major implications

The article by Ptaszyński and Niedźwiedzki (2004) on vertebrate tracks from the well−known Tumlin Sandstone provides important documentation of the unique terrestrial ichnofauna of the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. However, two of the major conclusions of this paper raise my objections. The authors propose a new position for the Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) boundary within the Buntsandstein succession of the regional lithostratigraphical scheme. In a conclusion of global significance, the authors find no signature of a mass extinction in the Late Permian land−dwelling tetrapod communities. Both of these issues are reviewed below.