Multiple Tracksites with Parallel Trackways from the Cretaceous of the Yeosu City Area Korea: Implications for Gregarious Behavior in Ornith
Multiple Tracksites with Parallel Trackways from the Cretaceous of the Yeosu City Area Korea: Implications for Gregarious Behavior in Ornithopod and Sauropod Dinosaurs
Martin G. Lockley, Min Huh, Se-Geon Gwak, Koo Geun Hwang & In Sung Paik.
At least six sites with multiple parallel ornithopod trackways
and one site with three parallel sauropod trackways have been
mapped in the track-rich Cretaceous sequence on Sado and Chudo
islands, Yeosu City area, South Korea. A preliminary study of
the stratigraphic context of these tracks indicates that they were
made by gregarious subadult or adult dinosaurs that frequented
lake basin settings subject to a cyclic depositional regime and
periodic ash fall. Bird and theropod dinosaur tracks also occur
in the sequence. Mapped sites reveal between 4 and 14 regularly
spaced, ornithopod trackways suggestive of herding behavior. one
site reveals an 84 m-long trackway, the longest on record for an
ornithopod. only one site reveals parallel sauropod trackways
indicating three animals of equal size traveling eastwards with
an inter-trackway spacing of about 2.25–2.5 m. The footprints
show well preserved pes claw impressions, slightly wide gauge and
largemanus/pes ratios (low heteropody). The sedimentological and
ichnofaunal sequences share some similarities with the famous
Jindong successions 50 km to the east, but they also differ
significantly in age and ichnofaunal composition.
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