[dinosaur] Upper Jurassic dinosaur tracks from Tianchihe Formation + Chirotherium and Rhynchosauroides trackways from Middle Triassic of China

Ben Creisler
[email protected]

New papers:


Lida Xing, Hendrik Klein, Enze Wang & W. Scott Persons IV (2019)
Upper Jurassic dinosaur tracks from the Tianchihe Formation of Shanxi
Province, China: review and new observations.
Historial Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.1080_08912963.2019.1661408&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tqbh2HLVh_oGi6On0glGza101hXKfFJatVO-hIVeqzM&s=hAAN3TA6AOAb-Uqjx1wRyUaIMUJrMQAYxTdjK5jp6es&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.tandfonline.com_doi_full_10.1080_08912963.2019.1661408&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tqbh2HLVh_oGi6On0glGza101hXKfFJatVO-hIVeqzM&s=_jcHBQq-FoomR8p7IC3TaiU0IaIInHoRu4jzuqjtkWY&e= 


A sauropod track assemblage from a surface in the Upper Jurassic fluvial
Tianchihe Formation at the Guanxi site, Shanxi Province, China, is
re-documented and analysed in detail, together with a recently discovered
new locality situated nearby. In contrast to earlier reports, the former
includes four trackways plus isolated tracks (41 tracks in total) instead
of five trackways (37 tracks in total) identified earlier, with pes prints
reaching more than 60 cm in length. The new site has three pes-manus track
pairs belonging to smaller individuals, with pes prints being about 20 cm
in length. The absence of larger sized tracks at this locality suggests the
possible presence of size-differentiated groups representing juveniles or
subadults. Track morphology, heteropody and the medium-wide gauge trackway
pattern at both sites support an assignment to the ichnogenus Brontopodus.
Trackmakers were eusauropods, possibly mamenchisaurids or more advanced
forms such as macronarians. Results of re-investigation allow a new
interpretation of trackway orientations and trackmaker behaviour,
respectively, as well as a calculation of progression speeds that suggest
walking movement.

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Lida Xing &Hendrik Klein (2019)
Chirotherium and first Asian Rhynchosauroides tetrapod trackways from the
Middle Triassic of Yunnan, China.
Historial Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.1080_08912963.2019.1661409&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tqbh2HLVh_oGi6On0glGza101hXKfFJatVO-hIVeqzM&s=oW78tXfim81r5JBLQTd6ywvFvndx4ApHahxSB4uGTUc&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.tandfonline.com_doi_full_10.1080_08912963.2019.1661409&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tqbh2HLVh_oGi6On0glGza101hXKfFJatVO-hIVeqzM&s=o-hknsMO4M9e2S9qvn-R2M6qJK0gN8EUSI3L5ZzwccA&e= 



The Middle Triassic (Anisian) Guanling Formation in Yunnan and Guizhou
provinces, southwestern China, is well-known for its marine-reptile fauna
with numerous well-preserved skeletons. Tetrapod footprints from this unit
have been reported of both terrestrial and marine forms documenting a
marginal marine environment in the eastern Tethys region. In particular
Chirotherium barthii, an ichnospecies that is characteristic of the Middle
Triassic (Anisian), was formerly described from the Guanling Formation of
Guizhou Province. Recently chirotheriid tracks were also reported from
deposits of this unit in Yunnan Province. Here we provide the first
detailed documentation of this tracksite. Furthermore, we assign these
trackways to the ichnospecies Chirotherium barthii, based on identical
features in footprint morphology. Additionally, from the same surface, we
describe the first tracks and trackways of the lacertoid ichnogenus
Rhynchosauroides from the Asian continent. Trackmakers of C. barthii are
non archosaurian archosauriforms or members of the archosaur crown-group,
while Rhynchosauroides can be attributed either to lepidosauromorph or
archosauromorph diapsids. The environment was a coastal area along the
eastern Tethys, with marine, semi-aquatic and terrestrial tetrapods leaving
their footprints in the carbonatic sediment of mudflats and lagoons when
searching for food, that possibly consisted of small marine invertebrates
or the small lacertoid forms being the prey of the larger archosaurs.

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