Martin G. Lockley

Dinosaur footprints from the Lower Cretaceous of eastern Manchuria, northeastern China; implications for the recognition of an ornithopod ichnofacies in East Asia

Early Cretaceous theropod and iguanodontid footprints are reported from the eastern Manchuria area. They are similar to theropods from the Tetori Group, Japan and the Gyeongsang Supergroup, South Korea, and currently are only identifiable at higher taxonomic levels as of theropod and iguanodontid affinity. Both theropod and iguanodontid trackmakers from NE China, South Korea and Japan evidently occur in the same paleobiogeographical province in which the psittacosaurid fauna is reported on the basis of skeletal remains. The ichnocoenosis is typical of the broadly defined large ornithopod ichnofacies associated with fiuvio-lacustrine environments in humid and temperate settings, and does not correspond closely to the known skeletal fauna. Such disparity suggests that trace and body fossil records often sample different animal communities.