Dinosaur tracksites from the Cretaceous Sagok Formation in the Uiseong Regional Geopark, South Korea: historical, palaeobiological perspectives

ABSTRACT

The relatively large (1,600 m²) Jeo-ri dinosaur tracksite from the Lower Cretaceous Sagok Formation in the Uiseong County area in Gyeongsangbuk-do (North Gyeongsang Province) was the first dinosaur tracksite designated as a Korean Natural Monument (Number 373). However, it has never been described in any detail. It is shown to reveal more than 380 footprints attributed to theropods, sauropods and ornithopods. The trackways show a preferred orientation to the north and northwest with some similarly sized ornithopod trackways suggesting gregarious behaviour. A smaller tracksite from the Mancheon-ri site, representing the Sagok Formation also reveals theropod, sauropod and ornithopod trackways. These include trackways of two small ornithopods (footprint lengths ~9.9-11.5 cm) that indicate deceleration while transitioning from bipedal to quadrupedal progression. One trackway shows rare evidence of pausing to ‘stand’ and leave ‘side-by-side’ footprints. The Sagok Formation is considered correlative with the Haman Formation which is well known for its dinosaur tracksites in Gyeongsangnam-do (South Gyeongsang Province). This correlation underscores the importance of understanding the remarkable abundance and spatiotemporal distribution of dinosaur tracks in the Lower Cretaceous of Korea.

KEYWORDS:

• Sagok Formation
• ornithopod tracks
• gait transitions

Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Yongsik Park (Gyeongsang National University) and Mr. Gui Yong Heo (Gyeongnam Domin Ilbo, daily) for help in the field works. We also thank Ms. Soo Kyung Bae, a manager of Uiseong Regional Geopark, for administrative supports and Mr. HP Jeon, a graduate student of Chinju National University of Education, for help in the laboratory. This research is supported by Uiseong County in 2021. We thank Anthony Romilio,, University of Queensland and Charles Helm, Tumbler Ridge Museum & Nelson Mandela University, South Africa for their helpful reviews of the original submitted manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2022.2106563

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Uiseong County Korea [not numbered].