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Early Cretaceous dinosaur and other tetrapod tracks of southwestern China

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  • Earth Sciences
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Abstract

In recent years the Lower Cretaceous red beds of southwestern China have yielded more than 20 significant dinosaur-dominated tracksites. More than half occur in the Jiaguan Formation with the remainder in the Feitianshan and Xiaoba formations. Collectively these sites provide evidence of at least 13 distinct dinosaurian trackmaker morphotypes, in addition to two avian theropod (bird) morphotypes and pterosaur and turtle tracks. Together these total 17 morphotypes provide a data base of 479 potential trackmakers, probably representing the same number of individuals. Such an ichnological database provides a useful proxy paleoecological census of tetrapod communities in the area during the Early Cretaceous, and is especially significant given the complete absence or scarcity of skeletal remains reported from these formations. The composition of ichnofaunas in all three formations is heavily saurischian (theropod and sauropod) dominated with a high diversity of distinctive theropod morphotypes, mostly assignable to known ichnogenera. Moreover, ichnofaunal data from multiple sites are generally consistent between sites and an indication of the reliability and repeatability of track census data. Such regionally-widespread data are rapidly superseding the information available from the skeletal record in the corresponding area, and must therefore be considered of high paleontological value.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and suggestions on this paper; Jianping Zhang (China University of Geosciences, Beijing), Xing Xu (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontologyand Paleoanthropology, China) and W. Scott Persons IV (University of Alberta, Canada) for their helpful and constructive feedback. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB822000), a Special Project Grant of Chongqing People’s Government (QDBLR-2007-2015), and the 2013 and 2015 Support Fund for Graduate Students’ Science and Technology Innovation from China University of Geosciences (Beijing), China (51223229).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lida Xing

  2. School of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lida Xing

  3. Dinosaur Trackers Research Group, University of Colorado Denver, PO Box 173364, Denver, CO, 80217, USA

    Martin G. Lockley

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Correspondence to Lida Xing or Martin G. Lockley.

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Xing, L., Lockley, M.G. Early Cretaceous dinosaur and other tetrapod tracks of southwestern China. Sci. Bull. 61, 1044–1051 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1093-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1093-z

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