Unusual dinosaur trackway preservation as clues to paleo-landscape and behavior from the Lower Cretaceous Luohe Formation, Shaanxi Province, China

Abstract

Poorly preserved tracks have limited ichnotaxonomic or biotaxon utility, but may reveal useful information about the paleoenvironment, behavior and track taphonomy. Eight mostly parallel to sub parallel trackway segments (T1–T8) were registered on a truncation surface in the Lower Cretaceous Luohe Formation of Shaanxi Province. These attest to the passage of several bipeds, probably all theropods, in a paleo-contour-parallel, south-north direction in an arid setting. Quality of preservation in these trackways is poor, but notably superior in two additional trackways (T9–T10) on a foreset surface. Trackway T9 indicates a didactyl trackmaker, probably a deinonychosaurian, heading north to south. This is the 13th report of deinonychosaurian tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of China. If any or all the eight south-north oriented trackway segments represent continuations of other segments in the same trackways, the total number of individual trackmakers heading in this direction may have been as low as three. Although the trackway pattern and sedimentological evidence could indicate a physically controlled pathway influencing the direction taken by these trackmakers, the possibility that the trackways also represented small social or gregarious group cannot be ruled out.