Running ornithopod trackway from Lower Cretaceous of South Korea
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Ben Creisler
Jul 10, 2026, 12:37:03 AM (7 days ago) Jul 10
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Ben Creisler
A new paper:
Seongyeong Kim, Yuong-Nam Lee & Yong Sik Gihm (2026)
A running ornithopod trackway from the Hasandong Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Korea): Evidence of a ‘Goldilocks’ substrate window and rapid avulsion burial
Palaeoworld: 201155
doi: 10.1016/j.palwor.2026.201155
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871174X26000909
High-speed dinosaur trackways that preserve both gait kinematics and footprint anatomy are rare because the substrate conditions that permit rapid locomotion are commonly incompatible with those that retain fine impressions. Here we report a tridactyl bipedal ornithopod trackway from the Hasandong Formation (Aptian–Albian), Juji Island, Republic of Korea, and show that its exceptional preservation records a narrow ‘Goldilocks’ substrate window coupled with event-style burial. The trackway comprises three consecutive natural casts preserved on the upper surface of a laterally continuous brownish grey mudstone (facies Fhbg) interpreted as an oxbow margin mudflat. 3D photogrammetry and ichnological measurements yield a relative stride length of SL/h = 2.84, consistent with a running gait, and an estimated speed of ∼4.95 m/s. Sedimentological criteria constrain both track formation and stabilization: (i) the track surface lacks desiccation cracks and pedogenic calcrete nodules, indicating persistently wet conditions, yet preserves sharp tridactyl outlines, implying a cohesive-but-plastic substrate; and (ii) the sharp, low-relief contact with the overlying channel sandstone, together with the absence of basal rip-up mud clasts, indicates non-erosive sand blanketing/infill onto (or across) standing water rather than scour. Sand delivered during a channel reactivation/annexation phase rapidly infilled the impressions, sealed the surface, and promoted long-term preservation as casts. Comparison with representative global tracksites highlights how trackway-level kinematic signals may survive even where footprint-level fidelity is often erased by substrate rheology. The Juji Island trackway provides an event-stratigraphic record linking short-duration fluvial instability with the preservation of running dinosaur locomotion.
A running ornithopod trackway from the Hasandong Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Korea): Evidence of a ‘Goldilocks’ substrate window and rapid avulsion burial
Palaeoworld: 201155
doi: 10.1016/j.palwor.2026.201155
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871174X26000909
High-speed dinosaur trackways that preserve both gait kinematics and footprint anatomy are rare because the substrate conditions that permit rapid locomotion are commonly incompatible with those that retain fine impressions. Here we report a tridactyl bipedal ornithopod trackway from the Hasandong Formation (Aptian–Albian), Juji Island, Republic of Korea, and show that its exceptional preservation records a narrow ‘Goldilocks’ substrate window coupled with event-style burial. The trackway comprises three consecutive natural casts preserved on the upper surface of a laterally continuous brownish grey mudstone (facies Fhbg) interpreted as an oxbow margin mudflat. 3D photogrammetry and ichnological measurements yield a relative stride length of SL/h = 2.84, consistent with a running gait, and an estimated speed of ∼4.95 m/s. Sedimentological criteria constrain both track formation and stabilization: (i) the track surface lacks desiccation cracks and pedogenic calcrete nodules, indicating persistently wet conditions, yet preserves sharp tridactyl outlines, implying a cohesive-but-plastic substrate; and (ii) the sharp, low-relief contact with the overlying channel sandstone, together with the absence of basal rip-up mud clasts, indicates non-erosive sand blanketing/infill onto (or across) standing water rather than scour. Sand delivered during a channel reactivation/annexation phase rapidly infilled the impressions, sealed the surface, and promoted long-term preservation as casts. Comparison with representative global tracksites highlights how trackway-level kinematic signals may survive even where footprint-level fidelity is often erased by substrate rheology. The Juji Island trackway provides an event-stratigraphic record linking short-duration fluvial instability with the preservation of running dinosaur locomotion.
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