Diverse dinosaur ichnoassemblages from the Lower Cretaceous Dasheng Group in the Yishu fault zone, Shandong Province, China

Abstract

New dinosaur track assemblages were discovered recently in the Tianjialou Formation of the Lower Cretaceous Dasheng Group in Shandong Province, China. Theropods are represented by the trackways of two different medium-sized groups: (1) tridactyl tracks with a typical mesaxonic shape; (2) functionally didactyl tracks attributed to deinonychosaurian theropods. The latter report, the third from the Cretaceous of Shandong Province, enlarges the global record of didactyl theropod tracks, until now sparsely documented from only a few locations in Asia, North America and Europe. A number of features in the dromaeosaur trackway suggest the assignment to cf. Dromaeosauripus. Several medium-sized trackways resemble the narrow-gauge, small manus ichnogenus Parabrontopodus, and one large trackway is characterised by a wide-gauge and large manus, similar to Brontopodus. This suggests the co-occurrence of two different sauropod groups. A further component in these ichnoassemblages is a tetradactyl morphotype and trackways of ornithischian affinity that are tentatively attributed to psittacosaurs.