Xing Lida, Niu Kecheng, Chen Qiyan, Klein Hendrik, Romilio Anthony, Chen Runsheng, Lin Min, Deng Ke, Tang Jianrong
Frontiers Science Center for Deep-time Digital Earth, China University of Geoscience (Beijing), Beijing, China.
School of the Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geoscience (Beijing), Beijing, China.
PeerJ. 2025 Jun 24;13:e19597. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19597. eCollection 2025.
Among the the mid-Cretaceous strata in China, considerable dinosaur record are preserved in the southeastern mountainous and arc-related basins. The Shanghang Basin is one of the sporadic red-stratified basins distributed in western Fujian, SE China, and has previously been discovered as the home of an ornithopod-dominaited ichnofauna, which is also characterized by the large troodontid ichnogenera Fujianipus. Include the newly discovered fossils, further confirming that this tracksite is dominated by ornithopods, characterized by a significant proportion (>27%) of large ornithopods, with deinonychosaurians as the possible apex predators. As the only extensive mid-Cretaceous dinosaur tracksite in southeastern China, Longxing offers a temporal comparison with skeletal records from Zhejiang (SE China) and other fauna globally. The Longxiang herbivorous assemblage may suggesting limited faunal turnover by aligning more closely with pre-Cenomanian than the contemporaneous faunas in Zhejiang. Besides, unlike South American patterns associated with OAE2, the faunal shifts of SE China are relatively mild and appear more influenced by regional factors-topographic barriers and volcanic activities-rather than global climatic signal affected by marine conditions. Further research is needed to refine faunal chronology and assess the impact of regional environmental factors in shaping Cretaceous ecosystems of SE China.
在中国的白垩纪中期地层中,东南部山区和与弧形构造相关的盆地保存了大量恐龙记录。上杭盆地是中国东南部福建省西部零星分布的红色层状盆地之一,此前已被发现是一个以鸟脚类为主的遗迹动物群的所在地,其特征还包括大型伤齿龙类遗迹属福建足迹。包括新发现的化石在内,进一步证实了这个足迹遗址以鸟脚类为主,其特征是大型鸟脚类动物占很大比例(>27%),并以恐爪龙类作为可能的顶级捕食者。作为中国东南部唯一广泛的白垩纪中期恐龙足迹遗址,龙兴提供了与来自中国东南部浙江的骨骼记录以及全球其他动物群的时间对比。龙祥食草动物组合可能表明,与浙江同期动物群相比,它与早森诺曼期的动物群更为接近,动物群更替有限。此外,与与海洋缺氧事件2相关的南美模式不同,中国东南部的动物群变化相对温和,似乎更多地受到区域因素——地形屏障和火山活动的影响,而不是受海洋条件影响的全球气候信号。需要进一步研究来完善动物群年代学,并评估区域环境因素对塑造中国东南部白垩纪生态系统的影响。