The Early Jurassic Kayentapus dominated tracks from Chongqing, China

ABSTRACT

It has long been known that Lower Jurassic theropod track assemblages are dominated by theropod tracks including Eubrontes and Grallator, known from North America since the mid 19th century. It was only comparatively recently that it was recognised that these ichnogenera where also abundant in other regions including China, making them important components of a global Lower Jurassic footprint assemblage zone. Moreover, another theropod ichnogenus, Kayentapus, also proved to be an important component of this assemblage zone in North America, Europe and Asia. The newly reported Kayentapus-occurrences reported here from the Lower Jurassic Geleshan site in Chongqing, China provide some of the best-preserved examples of this ichnogenus in Asia, and show that it can be consistently distinguished from robust Eubrontes. The assemblage is further evidence that the dinosaur tracksites of the Lower Jurassic were theropod dominated in Asia and globally with a consistent diversity of track morphotypes.

KEYWORDS:

• Theropod
• grallatorid
• Zhenzhuchong Formation
• Sichuan Basin
• footprint biochron

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the science and technology project of Chongqing Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources (the study on the footprints of Jurassic theropod dinosaurs in Geleshan, Chongqing). The authors thank two nonymous reviewers for their constructive reviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.