Mid-Cretaceous dinosaur track assemblage from the Tongfosi Formation of China: Comparison with the track assemblage of South Korea

Abstract

A Yanji Basin tracksite in the Cretaceous Tongfosi Formation in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province was reinvestigated twenty years after the original study.The re-examination confirms the presence of tracks tentatively referred to ornithopods and theropod tracks including several not previously reported. In addition to the main track-bearing level, a second footprint horizon was identified from which a probable ornithopod track was collected. Some of the formerly identified tracks were documented using photogrammetry, whereas others that had been collected, eroded, buried or obscured by dense vegetation. The age of the track-bearing beds is inferred to be late Albian to early Cenomanian. Comparison with track-bearing units of the same age in Shandong, China, and Korea indicated quite different compositions of track assemblages. In the case of the Korean sites the differences may be facies related. While the Korean ichnofauna is characterized by the co-occurrence of ornithopod, sauropod and tridactyl theropod tracks with didactyl dromaeosaurid, Minisauripus (small theropod), pterosaur and avian tracks, the latter four are absent in the Tongfosi assemblage. This could reflect a restricted environment being not favourable for activities of these trackmakers or simply a preservational bias.