Ichnos An International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces ISSN: 1042-0940 (Print) 1563-5236 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gich20 Sauropod Trackway Reflecting an Unusual Walking Pattern from the Early Cretaceous of Shandong Province, China Lida Xing, Yongqing Liu, Daniel Marty, Hongwei Kuang, Hendrik Klein, W. Scott Persons IV & Yan Lyu To cite this article: Lida Xing, Yongqing Liu, Daniel Marty, Hongwei Kuang, Hendrik Klein, W. Scott Persons IV & Yan Lyu (2017) Sauropod Trackway Reflecting an Unusual Walking Pattern from the Early Cretaceous of Shandong Province, China, Ichnos, 24:1, 27-36, DOI: 10.1080/10420940.2015.1126583 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10420940.2015.1126583 Published online: 31 Aug 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 56 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=gich20 Download by: [47.91.142.182] Date: 13 March 2017, At: 07:09 ICHNOS 2017, VOL. 24, NO. 1, 27–36 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10420940.2015.1126583 Sauropod Trackway Reflecting an Unusual Walking Pattern from the Early Cretaceous of Shandong Province, China Lida Xinga, Yongqing Liub, Daniel Martyc, Hongwei Kuangb, Hendrik Kleind, W. Scott Persons IVe, and Yan Lyua,f aSchool of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China; bInstitute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Science, Beijing, China; cNaturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel, Switzerland; dSaurierwelt Pal€aontologisches Museum, Neumarkt, Germany; eDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; fInstitute of Cultural Heritage of Beijing, Beijing, China ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The trackway of a quadrupedal dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Albian) Qingquan tracksite Sauropod track; Trackway (Tancheng, Shandong Province) is redescribed, and the trackmaker is identified as a sauropod. The configuration; Locomotion; trackway makes a slight turn towards the northwest and is characterized by an extremely narrow Trackway gauge; Early gauge pattern and an unusual configuration, i.e., a conspicuous difference between the position of Cretaceous; Tancheng the left and right manus tracks with respect to the position of the preceding pes track. Left manus tracks are located on the inside of the trackway, very close (and sometimes even in connection) to the opposite right pes tracks. So far, the Qingquan trackway is possibly the only extremely narrow- gauge sauropod trackway known from China. However, it is not clear to what extent this extremely narrow gauge pattern is related to the turning or a special behavior, or even linked to an injury (“limping trackway”). We tentatively attribute the Qingquan trackway to cf. Parabrontopodus, even though it has a rather low heteropody that is significantly lower than in Parabrontopodus and not typical for narrow-gauge sauropod trackways, but occurs in the wide-gauge ichnotaxon Brontopodus. Because of this discrepancy, the Qingquan trackway cannot readily be attributed to a more basal sauropod, which is generally considered the producer of narrow-gauge trackways. Therefore, the identification of a distinct sauropod group is not possible presently. The only skeletal remains of sauropods from the Lower Cretaceous of Shandong Province belong to the large titanosauriform, Euhelopus zdanskyi. Introduction Two dinosaur tracksites are already known from Tan- cheng County (Xing et al., 2010)(Fig. 1). The distance Large tracks of sauropod dinosaurs are characteristic between the Qingquan tracksite from Tancheng County trace fossils and can generally easily be recognized and and the Nanguzhai tracksite from Donghai County is identified as such if they are reasonably well-preserved. only 11 km, and both are within the Malingshan area. Sauropod tracks have been discovered in Mesozoic Previously, the age of the Qingquan tracksite had rocks throughout China (e.g., Lockley et al., 2002; Xing not been determined. The oldest published description et al., 2010). Zhen et al. (1996) reported several large of the tracks comes from the local county annals, and (pes length up to 82 cm) sauropod tracks from Lower simply states that: the tracksite is situated at Qingquan Cretaceous deposits of Donghai County, Jiangsu Prov- Village, Quanyuan Township, 500 m northwestward of ince, but without providing any detailed descriptions or Malingshan. Hou Lianhai from the Institute of Verte- figures. Large sauropod tracks from the Cretaceous brate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology identified have also been discovered from Chabu in Inner Mongo- thesetracksashadrosaurtracks(SongandWang, lia, Chuxiong in Yunnan Province (Lockley et al., 2002), 2006). Yanguoxia in Gansu Province (Zhang et al., 2006), and In 2012, Kuang et al. (2013) recognized that the tracks Donghai in Jiangsu Province (Xing et al., 2010). The were not those of hadrosaurs, but sauropods instead. In largest pes tracks from the Chabu No. 2 tracksite range 2013, Xing, Liu, Kuang, et al. (2013) undertook a more between 75–80 cm in length and 55–60 cm in width. detailed analysis of the tracksite, and here we present a The pes tracks from Donghai range from about redescription of the trackway and an interpretation of its 76–92 cm in length and 77–79 cm in width (Xing et al., particular configuration linked to a slight turn. 2010). CONTACT Lida Xing [email protected] School of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 28 L. XING ET AL. Figure 1. Location of the Qingquan, and the Jishan and Nanguzhai sauropod tracksites (indicated by sauropod pes track icons) in Shan- dong Province, China. Geographical and geological setting et al., 2003), it is generally agreed that the lower part of 0 00 0 00 the Tianjalou Formation of the Dasheng Group corre- The Qingquan tracksite (118 28 08 E, 34 42 26 N) is sponds with the upper part of the Shiqianzhuang Forma- located in the Tianjialou Formation of the Dasheng tion of the Qingshan Group (Tang et al., 2008), having Group, within the Yishu fault belt (the middle segment been deposited within the Aptian–Albian (about 120– of the Tanlu fault zone) (Wang et al., 2000). Within 100 Ma). Being located within the upper part of the the Yishu fault belt, the Lower Cretaceous strata are Dasheng Group, and in the middle-upper part of the made up of fluvial deposits with fine-grained sedi- Lower Cretaceous series, the Qingquan tracksite can pos- ments and well-developed fluviatile sedimentary bed- sibly be attributed to the Albian, about 110–100 Ma ago. ding structures (Jiangsu Bureau of Geology and The sauropod trackway is preserved in a layer of fine Mineral Resources, 1984; Shandong Provincial Bureau sandstone including irregular gypsum crystals, which sug- of Geology and Mineral Resources, 1991). gests arid climatic conditions at or near the time of track The track-bearing surface is located on a steep moun- formation. Later, the tracks were filled and covered up tainside (46 ) north of Qingquan Temple, on the western with a thin layer (5 cm thick) of purplish-grey fine sand- part of the Malingshan Syncline. The tracksite lies 30 km stone, that is characterized by a dense network of polygo- NE of Tancheng County in Shandong Province, in the nal desiccation cracks with a diameter of about 4–5cm Yishu fault belt, and close to the Nanguzhai tracksite in (Figs. 2 and 3). Above this lies a thicker (approximately Donghai County of the Jiangsu Province (Fig. 1), which 30 cm) layer of cross-bedded sandstone with components is also located in the Yishu fault belt. Both these track- ranging in size from very fine to coarse. And no other sites are located at approximately the same stratigraphic tracks have been found on this upper sandstone surface. position, even though a precise correlation is not On the track level, slightly sinusoidal ripple marks are pre- possible. served and oriented approximately NW-SE. These sedi- Above the Lower Cretaceous pyroclastic rocks of the mentary characters are consistent with the environment Qinshan Group (Shi et al., 2003) lies a series of clastic, of a fluvial channel of a braided-river system. terrestrial deposits with purplish polymictic conglomer- ates, fine sandstones, and occasionally yellow-green sil- tites that is partially mixed with volcanic deposits (Si, Methodology 2002). Although there is controversy within the geologic literature about the subdivision and formational history Weathering due to prolonged exposure has not yet sig- of the Dasheng Group (Li and Zhao, 1992; Si, 2002; Liu nificantly damaged the Qingquan tracksite (abbreviated ICHNOS 29 Figure 2. Low-angle light photograph and outline drawing of Qingquan sauropod track QQ-S1-LP1. QQ in labels of imprints), and most of the tracks are 2008; Marty et al., 2010a). The (WAP/P’ML)-ratio and even still covered and protected by the track fills and the (WAM/M’MW)-ratio were calculated from pace and overlying layer. To better observe the morphology of stride length, assuming that the width of the angulation some of the tracks, the track fills of QQ-S1-LP1, LM1, pattern intersects the stride under a right angle and at the RP1, and RM1 were removed. Due to the steeply inclined approximate midpoint of the stride (Marty, 2008). If the track surface (46), it was not possible to measure the [WAP/P’ML]-ratio equals 1.0, the pes tracks are likely to entire trackway. Only the lowermost six pes-manus track touch the trackway midline. If the ratio is smaller than pairs were measured (Table 1), and traced on transparent 1.0, tracks intersect the trackway midline, which corre- plastic and acetate sheets at a scale of 1:1. Thus, the sponds to the definition of narrow-gauge (see Farlow, upper part of the trackway outline drawing as shown in 1992). Accordingly, a value of 1.0 separates narrow-gauge Figure 3 (the tracks after RP3/RM3) is schematic only as from medium-gauge trackways, whereas the value 1.2 is it is based on the photograph.