New theropod track site from Cretaceous of China

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

A new paper:

Lida Xing, Jens N. Lallensack, Daqing Li, Lijun Zhang, Qiyan Chen, Qi Qi, Hang Yin & W. Scott Persons IV (2025)
A new Cretaceous theropod track site from the Hekou Group, Gansu Province, China: ichnotaxonomy and preservation
Historical Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2580953
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2025.2580953


The Lanzhou–Minhe Basin is a representative Early Cretaceous inland sedimentary basin in western China. Numerous Jurassic sauropod body fossils were collected in the Haishiwan area of Yongdeng, located along the northern margin of the basin. This study reports new theropod tracks from the Hongmensi tracksite in Yongdeng County, preserved on a fallen block of the Hekou Group. The assemblage comprises three trackways and at least 18 isolated tridactyl tracks, grouped into two morphotypes (~12 and ~20 cm). Despite minor morphological variation, all tracks are most appropriately referred to Grallator cf. ssatoi. Track preservation varies across the ichnosurface, with flattened, shallow, and normally preserved examples reflecting differences in substrate consistency and mud layer thickness. These conditions produced marked morphological variation within a small area, highlighting the importance of preservation in ichnotaxonomic interpretation. The Hongmensi assemblage represents a composite grallatorid ichnoassociation comparable to those of the Tuchengzi Formation and other Hekou Group sites, underscoring both the consistency and size-structured nature of Early Cretaceous small theropod ichnofaunas in northern China.