A new early cretaceous dinosaur track assemblage and the first definite non-avian theropod swim trackway from China |
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| Authors: | LiDa Xing Martin G. Lockley JianPing Zhang Andrew R. C. Milner Hendrik Klein DaQing Li W. Scott Persons IV JieFang Ebi |
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| Affiliation: | 1 School of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China; 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta 11455 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada; 3 Dinosaur Tracks Museum, University of Colorado Denver, PO Box 173364, Denver, Colorado 80217, USA; 4 St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, 2180 East Riverside Drive, Utah 84790, USA; 5 Saurierwelt Pal ontologisches Museum, Alte Richt 7, D-92318 Neumarkt, Germany; 6 Geological Museum of Gansu, Lanzhou 730040, China; 7 Zhaojue County Bureau of Culture, Multimedia, Press & Sport Tourism, Zhaojue 616150, China |
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| Abstract: | ![]()
The trackway of a swimming theropod (ichnogenus Characichnos) is reported from the Lower Cretaceous Feitianshan Formation of Sichuan, China. These swim tracks help confirm that non-avian theropods were capable of forging moderately deep bodies of water. The trackway occurs on the same surface as a typical walking trackway of a sauropod (ichnogenus Brontopodus). Both occurrences are the first reported from the Cretaceous of Sichuan, and the swim tracks are the first well-preserved example of a Characichnos trackway from China. Additionally, a theropod walking trackway and several ornithopod walking trackways (similar to the ichnogenus Caririchnium) occur in the same horizon. The ornithopod trackways show a parallel orientation, suggesting gregarious behavior of the trackmakers, which may have been iguanodontiforms and/or hadrosauriforms. The co-occurrence of theropod swim tracks and theropod walking tracks suggests a fluctuation of water depth within a distinct time span. |
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