A Review of the Tetrapod Track Record in China, with Special Reference to Type Ichnospecies： Implications for Ichnotaxonomy and Paleobiology

• Published in: Acta geologica Sinica (Beijing) Vol. 87; no. 1; pp. 1 - 20
• Main Authors: LOCKLEY, Martin G., Jianjun, LI, Rihui, LI, MATSUKAWA, Masaki, HARRIS, Jerald D., Lida, XING
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2013; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; University of Colorado Denver, Dinosaur Tracks Research Group, P.O.Box 173364, Campus Box 172,Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA%Beijing Museum of Natural History Museum, 126 Tianqiao, South Street, Beijing 100050, China%Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geological Survey, 62 Fuzhou Road, Qingdao 266071, China%Department of Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Gakugei University, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan%Department of Physical Sciences, Dixie State College, 225 South 700 East, St.George, Utah 84770%Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, 11455 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada
• Edition: English ed.
• Subjects: birds; China; Cretaceous; Dinosaurs; Endemism; ichnotaxonomy; Jurassic; Mesozoic; theropods; Triassic; 中国; 动物类型; 四足动物; 特有现象; 生物学意义; 白垩纪; 脊椎动物; 遗迹; Dinosaurs; Mesozoic; birds; China; ichnotaxonomy; theropods
• ISSN: 1000-9515; 1755-6724
• DOI: 10.1111/1755-6724.12026

＂Splitting＂ and ＂lumping＂ are perpetual problems in vertebrate, especially dinosaur, ichnotaxonomy. Chinese dinosaur ichnotaxonomy, which began in 1940, provides a series of interesting case studies, highlighting the dual problems of historical and dubious ichnotaxonomy. Chinese Mesozoic tetrapod track types have been placed into 63 ichnospecies （one Triassic, 28 Jurassic, and 34 Cretaceous）, exclusive of other, non-type ichnospecies or ichnotaxa identified from China. Fifty-two （~83%） of these 63 tetrapod ichnospecies were placed in monospecific ichnogenera. At the ichnogenus level, we prune---either by recognizing nomina dubia or by synonymy--17 from the list of 53 dinosaurian ichnogenera （a 32% reduction）, leaving 36 ichnotaxa that we consider valid. Most of the cuts affect Jurassic theropod ichnotaxa, which are reduced from 23 to only nine because most ichnogenera are subjective junior synonyms of Grallator and Eubrontes. Fewer Chinese Cretaceous ichnotaxa （only six of 21 ichnogenera） are obvious nomina dubia or subjective synonyms, suggesting greater east Asian endemism during this time. Because ichnospecies differences are subtle, we provisionally retain ichnospecies as valid pending detailed comparative analyses of congeneric ichnospecies. This synthesis is long overdue and is necessary to address problems of historical and provincial ichnotaxonomy, which severely hamper comparisons of tetrapod ichnofaunas in space and time.