Two new dinosaur tracksites from the Jurassic Guizhou Province, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two newly discovered dinosaur track locations near the town of Bijie in Guizhou Province, southwestern China are named the Yuanbaoqing and Yejiatian tracksites. They represent the Lower Jurassic Maanshan Member of the Zijiujing Formation and Upper Jurassic Xiashaximiao Formation, respectively. The former Yuanbaoqing tracksite reveals a minimum of three Anomoepus trackways and two poorly preserved incomplete sauropod trackways, tentatively assigned here to cf. Brontopodus. They occur in shallow lake to shoreline facies depositional environments. The Yejiatian site shows a well-preserved, narrow-gauge sauropod trackway in a delta plain facies which is identified as Parabrontopodus. The occurrences enhance the local faunal record in Guizhou Province were previous tracksite reports for these stratigraphic intervals are sparse. In the broader regional context of southwestern China the track record is consistent with the body fossil record in both the Lower and Upper Jurassic of this region.