Minisauripus is an ichnogenus of theropoddinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of East Asia. The trackmaker of Minisauripus would have been among the smallest known non-avian dinosaurs. This ichnogenus contains two named ichnospecies from China, M. chuanzhuensis and M. zhenshuonani, with several indeterminate ichnospecies known from China, South Korea and Japan.
The type ichnospecies M. chuanzhuensis was first described in 1995 from the Early Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation of Sichuan, China.[1] The second ichnospecies M. zhensuonani was described in 2008 from the Tianjialou Formation (Barremian-Albian) of Shandong, China.[2] Trace fossils from the Haman Formation (Albian) of South Korea were referred to as M. cf. zhenshuonani or M. cf. chuanzhuensis.[2] Other trace fossils attributed to M. isp. were discovered from the Feitianshan Formation of China, the Jinju Formation (Albian) of South Korea and the Kitadani Formation (Aptian) of Japan.[3][4][5]
Classification
About 95 tracks have been attributed to Minisauripus, and over 80% of them were less than 3cm (1.2in) long. The abundance of such small footprints might suggest that the trackmaker of Minisauripus was a small non-avian theropod, not a juvenile of a larger taxon.[4] The Minisauripus tracks show three distinct toes, unlike the tracks of similar-sized small dromaeosaurids such as Dromaeosauriformipes, which are didactyl, with the recurved claw on the second toe being held off the ground and thus not preserved in the trackway.[6]
↑ Zhen, S.; Li, J.; Chen, W.; Zhu, S. (1995). "Dinosaur and bird footprints from the Lower Cretaceous of Emei County, Sichuan". Memoirs of the Beijing Natural History Museum. 54: 105–120.
1 2 Lockley, M.G.; Kim, J.-Y.; Kim, K.-S.; Kim, S.-H.; Matsukawa, M.; Rihui, L.; Jianjun, L.; Yang, S.-Y. (2008). "Minisauripus―the track of a diminutive dinosaur from the Cretaceous of China and South Korea: implications for stratigraphic correlation and theropod foot morphodynamics". Cretaceous Research. 29 (1): 115–130. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2007.04.003.
↑ Xing, L.; Lockley, M.G.; Yang, G.; Cao, J.; Benton, M.; Xu, X.; Zhang, J.; Klein, H.; Persons, W.S.; Kim, J.Y.; Peng, G.; Ye, Y.; Ran, H. (2016). "A new Minisauripus site from the Lower Cretaceous of China: Tracks of small adults or juveniles?". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 452: 28–39. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.04.006.
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