Tracking Lower Cretaceous Dinosaurs in China: a new database for comparison with ichnofaunal data from Korea, the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia

Abstract

Following the recent rapid increase in the reports of tetrapod tracksites in the Cretaceous, especially from the Lower Cretaceous, of China and other parts of East Asia, notably South Korea, a review of the ichnofaunal database from these regions is presented as the basis for comparisons with other Lower Cretaceous ichnofaunas that are abundant and reasonably well documented. These areas include parts of North and South America, especially the western USA, and parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Northern Germany, Spain, Italy and Croatia. The Chinese database presently includes about 70 Cretaceous sites, the majority of which are Early Cretaceous in age. Although abundant data are available from many regions, much of it has yet to be synthesized in detail or in standard formats. Moreover, ichnotaxonomy may be variable (provincial) between different regions. Thus, while comprehensive lists of sites are available for some regions (China and South America), in other regions such as South Korea and the western USA data have been compiled primarily on a formation by formation basis. The record for Europe is moderately good, but scattered in the primary literature and in need of further synthesis. The record for Australia and Africa is sparse and also in need of synthesis. The most notable regional differences between ichnofaunas appears to be in the relative abundance of distinctive bird and pterosaur track ichnotaxa in China and Korea in comparison with their scarcity or absence in other regions. The distinctive ichnogenus Minisauripus is also known only in China and Korea as are the majority of known dromaeosaurid track occurrences. Ornithopod‐dominated and ornithopod‐rich ichnofaunas are widespread and particularly abundant in the late Early Cretaceous Barremian to Albian, of some regions. Most well documented Early Cretaceous ichnofaunas are associated with siliciclastic facies and evidently differ from those associated with carbonate facies. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 770–789.

A review of large Cretaceous ornithopod tracks, with special reference to their ichnotaxonomy

“…() suggest, Amblydactylus is not a senior subjective synonym of Iguanodontipus but rather is much closer to Caririchnium . It is worth noting that Iguanodontipus has also recently been reported from the basal Cretaceous of Spain (Castenera et al ., ), as discussed elsewhere (Lockley et al ., ).…”

Early Cretaceous dinosaur and other tetrapod tracks of southwestern China

“…These occurrences point to a paleoecological pattern: i.e., the Jiaguan Formation ichnofauna yields Dromaeopodus, Velociraptorichnus, Minisauripus tracks (and bird tracks Koreanaornis) with distinct East Asian characteristics [34,35] and is very similar in composition to the Tianjialou Formation ichnofauna described by Li et al [36] from Shandong (Northeast China) and considered Barremian-Albian in age [37]. In this regard we have noted that, medium-sized deinonychosaur tracks and Minisauripus occur in the Haman Formation (Aptian-Albian, [38]) in South Korea [39], indicating a similar theropod-dominated ichnofauna to that found in the Sichuan Basin.…”

“…In this regard we have noted that, medium-sized deinonychosaur tracks and Minisauripus occur in the Haman Formation (Aptian-Albian, [38]) in South Korea [39], indicating a similar theropod-dominated ichnofauna to that found in the Sichuan Basin. Thus there appears to be a Dromaeopodus-Velociraptorichnus-Minisauripus assemblage dated as Barremian-Albian, which occurs in Shandong, in the Yishu fault zone [37,40] and the Junan area [36] and also in South Korea in middle to late Early Cretaceous [34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

Tracking Dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight: a review of tracks, sites, and current research

“…The recognition of Caririchnium and Tetrapodosaurus allows for generalized comparison with track assemblages from other similar aged deposits in similar facies in North America (McCrea et al ., , ; Lockley et al ., ). It also indicates, as noted by Lockwood et al ., ; Lockley et al ., ), that there is consistency between the dinosaur ichnofauna and the body fossils.…”

“…This and other studies such as Lockley et al . (2014a) show that further useful ichnotaxonomic assignments can be made, and that these facilitate comparisons with other Lower Cretaceous tracks and tracksites worldwide (Lockley et al ., 2014b). The assignment of tracks to ichnotaxa such the ankylosaurian track Tetrapodosaurus and the predicted assignment of ornithopod tracks to Caririchnium and Amblydactylus adds to our knowledge of the unique ichnoassemblage present on the Isle of Wight.…”