The new ichnotaxon Eubrontes nobitai ichnosp. nov. and other saurischian tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of Sichuan Province and a review of Chinese Eubrontes-type tracks

Li-Da Xing,Guang-Zhao Peng,Martin G Lockley,Hendrik Klein,Li-Jun Zhang,Anthony Romilio,Yong Ye,W Scott Persons,Miao-Yan Wang

doi:10.1186/s42501-021-00096-y

Abstract

The Jiaguan Formation and the underlying Feitianshan Formation (Lower Cretaceous) in Sichuan Province yield multiple saurischian (theropod–sauropod) dominated ichnofaunas. To date, a moderate diversity of six theropod ichnogenera has been reported, but none of these have been identified at the ichnospecies level. Thus, many morphotypes have common “generic” labels such as Grallator, Eubrontes, cf. Eubrontes or even “Eubrontes-Megalosauripus” morphotype. These morphotypes are generally more typical of the Jurassic, whereas other more distinctive theropod tracks (Minisauripus and Velociraptorichnus) are restricted to the Cretaceous. The new ichnospecies Eubrontes nobitai ichnosp nov. is distinguished from Jurassic morphotypes based on a very well-preserved trackway and represents the first-named Eubrontes ichnospecies from the Cretaceous of Asia.

Highlights

With over 17 track sites documented so far, the Jiaguan Formation and the underlying Feitianshan Formation hold among the richest records of dinosaur tracks in China (Young 1960; Xing and Lockley 2016; Xing et al 2007, 2014a, 2016a, 2018a, 2018b)
4.1 Materials The Jinyuxi track site is a weathered siltstone surface located on the bed of a stream running through Yuanlin Village
The theropod trackway The Jinyuxi (JYX)-T1, which consists of four consecutive tracks, the theropod trackway JYX-T2, which consists of one continuous single step, isolated tracks JYX-TI1–TI4, and the sauropod trackway JYX-S4 which consists of five consecutive tracks, are identified

Summary

Introduction

With over 17 track sites documented so far, the Jiaguan Formation and the underlying Feitianshan Formation hold among the richest records of dinosaur tracks in China (Young 1960; Xing and Lockley 2016; Xing et al 2007, 2014a, 2016a, 2018a, 2018b). Most Jiaguan track sites are saurischian-dominated (Xing and Lockley 2016; Xing et al 2016a), with exceptions of the Lotus (Xing et al 2015a) and Huibu (Xing et al 2018b) track sites, where ornithopod tracks are or nearly abundant. Ting Xu, the director of Huangjing Integrated Cultural Station, discovered the

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Discussion

Conclusion