Heilongjiang is the first to find a large area of Cretaceous dinosaur footprints
Sauropod trail
Recently, Chinese and foreign scientists announced the discovery of a large number of dinosaur footprint fossils in Yilan County, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, which is the first large-scale early Cretaceous dinosaur footprint site reported in Heilongjiang Province. The large number and preservation of these dinosaur footprints are of great value for the study of the evolution of dinosaurs, and are of great significance for further exploring the behavior habits and living environment of dinosaurs to restore the paleoenvironment of the region and its geological climate change.
The study was led by Associate Professor Xing Lida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), and participated by scholars such as Liang Qiu, Chunyong Ugly, Donghao Wang, and Professor Martin Lockley, Director of the Footprint Museum at the University of Colorado (Denver). The relevant papers were published in the internationally renowned journals of geology" paleogeography, paleoclimate, paleoecology.
Heilongjiang is rich in fossil resources and is the first place in China to discover dinosaur fossils. In 1902, Russian scholars discovered the Manchurian dragon in the Late Cretaceous Yuliangzi Formation of The Dragon Bone Mountain in the Jiayin region of northern Heilongjiang, which belongs to the duck-billed dinosaurs.
The fossil site also includes fossils of tyrannosaurs, chirons, shark-toothed dragons, grandeurosaurs, and ornithistrels, but the fossils of duck-billed dragons account for the vast majority. Cenozoic vertebrate fossils include the Songhua River mammoth, the Mei's rhinoceros, and the Bighorn deer in Hetao, which constitute a rich mammalian biota.
Unfortunately, the bones and footprints of the early Cretaceous in Heilongjiang are very rare. The only record is that in 1983, Chen Binglin and other scholars from Daqing Petroleum Institute (Northeast Petroleum University) found a dinosaur footprint on the west bank of the Mudan River outside the south gate of Yilan County, but it was not specifically described and compared.
In the summer of 2018, fossil enthusiast Julie found bivalve fossils and turtle fossils on a newly opened section on the roadside of Hongxing Village in Dalianhe Town, next to which there are some pits with obvious patterns, suspected footprints of paleontologists. Subsequently, Xing Lida's team confirmed that these marks were fossil footprints and quickly went to the scene to investigate.
According to statistics, the Ylang Ylang dinosaur footprint group consists of 5 tracks with a total of 70 footprints, including parallel sauropod trails, three-toed ornithopod tracks, and extended three-toed theropod tracks.
The length of the hind feet of the sauropod footprint is about 49 cm, and due to the marked difference in the step length of the right and left feet, it may represent a limp or abnormal gait.
Ornithopod footprints are dominated by toe marks, the third toe is the most developed, and the claws of the second and fourth toes are almost triangular, and the leading edge is rounded and blunt.
The claw marks of the three-toed theropod are parallel and are temporarily attributed to swimming marks. The combination of theropod swimming tracks and the walking tracks of other dinosaurs suggests that they formed at different times and in different environments. The expedition also recounted Chen Binglin's old records, suggesting that his footprints may have been left by ankylosaurs.
The Ylang Ylang Dinosaur Footprint Group is the first large-scale early Cretaceous footprint reported in Heilongjiang Province, and the discovery complements the region's Early Cretaceous dinosaur fossil record and also reflects the diversity of dinosaur biota in the region (including sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, and possibly ankylosaurs). The discovery of swimming tracks also helped us gain a deeper understanding of dinosaur behavior. The late Cretaceous dinosaur biota of Heilongjiang (including the Amur region of Russia) is likely to be a continuation of this biota. (Text/Reporter Yan Jing)