Hezhang, Guizhou, Discovers Jurassic Early Dinosaur Footprint Group

On February 7th, a team of international scientists announced in Beijing that they had discovered a fossil combination of dinosaur footprints dominated by small to medium-sized theropod and accompanied by a small number of ornithopod footprints in Hezhang County, Guizhou Province, which is of great significance for understanding the behavior, activity range and biodiversity of small to medium-sized dinosaurs in southwestern China.

Nine ornithopod footprints were found, only two of which can form a possible stride, the average length of the hind feet is 26.8 cm, due to preservation reasons, it cannot be accurately identified, but the basic morphological characteristics are similar to those of Tyrannosaurus footprints, which once again provides new fossil evidence for the existence of different creators than the basal ornithopods in southwestern China's early Jurassic period.

Tyrannosaurus concept map

This discovery of theropod-ornithopod-bird-line footprint fossil combination is consistent with the footprints discovered in Leshan, Guilong and Zigong, Sichuan, and Moutai, Guizhou, confirming the widespread nature of this type of fossil combination.

This study supplements the fossil records of southwestern China's early Jurassic biota, and is an important link in the ‘census’ of the dinosaur fauna and proportions in this area.

The research was led by Professor Xing Lida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), with Martin Locke of Colorado State University, Hendrik Klein, a track scholar from Germany, Peng Guangzhao, curator of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, and Zeng Rong of the Guizhou Museum, the research paper was published in the paleontological journalHistorical Biologymagazine.

(Cui Xueqin)