July 22 , 2016

Dinosaur track and bone records often occur at different locations. However, a few formations show a close correspondence between bones and tracks that correspond to likely trackmakers. In this paper, the authors report sauropod tracks (Brontopodus) in very close geographic and stratigraphic proximity to the type locality of the eusauropod Tonganosaurus hei in the middle-upper parts of the Lower Jurassic Yimen Formation in Tongbao Village, Huili County, Panxi region of Sichuan Province. This Huili track-trackmaker correlation is possibly existent, but still needs more evidence to confirm. As the first Jurassic sauropod tracks found in the Panxi region, the Tongbao Brontopodus tracks have provided evidence indicating coexistence of primitive sauropod and basal sauropodomorphs in Southwest China during Early Jurassic.

XING Lida, LOCKLEY, Martin G., YOU Hailu, PENG Guangzhao, TANG Xiang, RAN Hao, WANG Tao, HU Jian, PERSONS, W. Scott (2016)

Early Jurassic sauropod tracks from the Yimen Formation of Panxi region, Southwest China: Ichnotaxonomy and potential trackmaker.

Geological Bulletin of China 35(6): 851-855