The first dinosaurs in China: Dating Late Triassic footprint fossils from the Sichuan Basin

Shenyuan Peng; Jian Liu; Michael J. Benton; Xin Jin; Zhiqiang Shi

doi:10.1016/j.gr.2023.02.003

The first dinosaurs in China: Dating Late Triassic footprint fossils from the Sichuan Basin

Shenyuan Peng, Jian Liu, Michael J. Benton^*, Xin Jin, Zhiqiang Shi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Dinosaur footprints from the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation (T₃x³) in the Sichuan Basin are the earliest records of dinosaurs from China. Hitherto, little has been known about dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of eastern Tethys and their geochronological ages. Here, we report abundant new dinosaur tracks from the Upper Triassic Tianquan track site, in Ya'an city, western Sichuan Basin. The tracks are assigned to cf. Pengxianpus isp., cf. Kayentapus isp. and elements of the Grallator-Anchisauripus-Eubrontes plexus based on morphospace analysis of key traits. These tracks were all produced by small theropod dinosaurs. The track-bearing beds are dated to 218.4 ± 4.7 Ma, a mid-Norian age, based on a group of the youngest detrital zircons. These earliest dinosaurs in the eastern Tethys appear to have migrated in from regions in western Tethys at similar paleolatitudes, and their movements may have been limited by substantially fluctuating paleoclimates. These theropod tracks from eastern Tethys provide additional evidence of the rise of dinosaurs to ecological dominance at a time of fluctuating paleoclimatic conditions corresponding to the mid-Norian Warming Event.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	261-273
Number of pages	13
Journal	Gondwana Research
Volume	117
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2023.02.003
Publication status	Published - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Xiaomei Zhou and Dan Qiao from Chengdu University of Technology and Nereo Preto and Qiangwang Wu from Padova University (Italy) for their assistance in the field work. This study is founded by Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2021YJ0353) and Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 41572085) of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. We also appreciate constructive suggestions from the editor and reviewers.

Funding Information:
We thank Xiaomei Zhou and Dan Qiao from Chengdu University of Technology and Nereo Preto and Qiangwang Wu from Padova University (Italy) for their assistance in the field work. This study is founded by Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2021YJ0353) and Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 41572085) of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. We also appreciate constructive suggestions from the editor and reviewers.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 International Association for Gondwana Research

Keywords

Dinosaur footprints
Evolution
Ichnotaxon
Late Triassic
Migration
Zircon U-Pb dating

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title = "The first dinosaurs in China: Dating Late Triassic footprint fossils from the Sichuan Basin",

abstract = "Dinosaur footprints from the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation (T3x3) in the Sichuan Basin are the earliest records of dinosaurs from China. Hitherto, little has been known about dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of eastern Tethys and their geochronological ages. Here, we report abundant new dinosaur tracks from the Upper Triassic Tianquan track site, in Ya'an city, western Sichuan Basin. The tracks are assigned to cf. Pengxianpus isp., cf. Kayentapus isp. and elements of the Grallator-Anchisauripus-Eubrontes plexus based on morphospace analysis of key traits. These tracks were all produced by small theropod dinosaurs. The track-bearing beds are dated to 218.4 ± 4.7 Ma, a mid-Norian age, based on a group of the youngest detrital zircons. These earliest dinosaurs in the eastern Tethys appear to have migrated in from regions in western Tethys at similar paleolatitudes, and their movements may have been limited by substantially fluctuating paleoclimates. These theropod tracks from eastern Tethys provide additional evidence of the rise of dinosaurs to ecological dominance at a time of fluctuating paleoclimatic conditions corresponding to the mid-Norian Warming Event.",

keywords = "Dinosaur footprints, Evolution, Ichnotaxon, Late Triassic, Migration, Zircon U-Pb dating",

author = "Shenyuan Peng and Jian Liu and Benton, {Michael J.} and Xin Jin and Zhiqiang Shi",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Xiaomei Zhou and Dan Qiao from Chengdu University of Technology and Nereo Preto and Qiangwang Wu from Padova University (Italy) for their assistance in the field work. This study is founded by Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2021YJ0353) and Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 41572085) of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. We also appreciate constructive suggestions from the editor and reviewers. Funding Information: We thank Xiaomei Zhou and Dan Qiao from Chengdu University of Technology and Nereo Preto and Qiangwang Wu from Padova University (Italy) for their assistance in the field work. This study is founded by Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2021YJ0353) and Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 41572085) of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. We also appreciate constructive suggestions from the editor and reviewers. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 International Association for Gondwana Research",

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doi = "10.1016/j.gr.2023.02.003",

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N2 - Dinosaur footprints from the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation (T3x3) in the Sichuan Basin are the earliest records of dinosaurs from China. Hitherto, little has been known about dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of eastern Tethys and their geochronological ages. Here, we report abundant new dinosaur tracks from the Upper Triassic Tianquan track site, in Ya'an city, western Sichuan Basin. The tracks are assigned to cf. Pengxianpus isp., cf. Kayentapus isp. and elements of the Grallator-Anchisauripus-Eubrontes plexus based on morphospace analysis of key traits. These tracks were all produced by small theropod dinosaurs. The track-bearing beds are dated to 218.4 ± 4.7 Ma, a mid-Norian age, based on a group of the youngest detrital zircons. These earliest dinosaurs in the eastern Tethys appear to have migrated in from regions in western Tethys at similar paleolatitudes, and their movements may have been limited by substantially fluctuating paleoclimates. These theropod tracks from eastern Tethys provide additional evidence of the rise of dinosaurs to ecological dominance at a time of fluctuating paleoclimatic conditions corresponding to the mid-Norian Warming Event.

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JF - Gondwana Research

ER -

The first dinosaurs in China: Dating Late Triassic footprint fossils from the Sichuan Basin

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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