https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2071-8602
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Abstract
Trace fossils offer a great potential to enhance our understanding of the rise of dinosaurs and their interactions with the environment. Here, we report a Rhaetian theropod footprint found in the Shazhenxi Formation of the Zigui Basin, representing the stratigraphically oldest dinosaur track recorded from the Middle Yangtze region and has great significance for understanding the Late Triassic theropods and their distribution across East Asia. The tridactyl track is assigned to cf. Eubrontes isp. and shows a similar morphology with some tracks from the Sichuan Basin, indicating that Eubrontes had a wider spatial distribution in the Upper Triassic than previously thought. This work highlights the great interest and importance of palaeoichnological prospecting in the Triassic deposits of the Zigui Basin.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the editor and the reviewers. We thank Hendrik Klein, Laura Piñuela and Luis Buatois for their critical comments and suggestions on improving the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Figure A1. SZX-1 cf. Eubrontes isp. (A) Specimen stored at Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey. (B) Interpretive drawing of the specimen explaining applied measuring methods (FL = track length, FW = track width, DL = length of digit, DW = width of digit, α = divarication angle of digits II and III, and β = divarication angle of digits III and IV, according to Thulborn (Citation1990); X/Y = digit III projection ratio, according to Olsen et al. (Citation1998); a/b = mesaxony, according to Lockley (Citation2009)).
