A new deinonychosaurian track from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group, Gansu Province, China

作者：Xing Lida^*; Li Daqing; Harris Jerald D; Bell Phil R; Azuma Yoichi; Fujita Masato; Lee Yuong Nam; Currie Philip J

来源：Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 2013, 58(4): 723-730.

DOI：10.4202/app.2011.0115

• Dinosauria
• Theropoda
• Deinonychosauria
• Dromaeosauripus yongjingensis
• Cretaceous
• Hekou Group
• China

Herein we describe deinonychosaurian (Dinosauria: Theropoda) tracks in the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group at sites I and II of Liujiaxia Dinosaur National Geopark, Gansu Province, China. The site preserves 71 didactyl tracks, the largest concentration of deinonychosaurian tracks in Asia. The tracks pertain to a new dromaeopodid ichnospecies: Dromaeosauripus yongjingensis ichnosp. nov., which is diagnosed by: a digital pad formula of x-1-3-4-x and a mean divarication angle between digits III and IV of 19 degrees, and having the proximal portion of digit II contacting the anterior margin of a large, rounded metatarsophalangeal pad. Six Dromaeosauripus trackways from site II comprise at least two, and possibly three, turning trackways in which the track maker(s) turned without slowing down. None of the Dromaeosauripus trackways are parallel or closely spaced, suggesting that they were made by solitary track makers. Estimates of dromaeopodid track-maker sizes are between 61-300 cm, well within the size range established by body fossils of both dromaeosaurids and troodontids.

• 出版日期2013-12
• 单位中国地质大学（北京）; 中国地质博物馆