Pterosaur trackways from the Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation (Barremian–Albian) of Qijiang, Southwest China

• Described as one of the most important tracksites in the Cretaceous of China
• The largest Pteraichnus trackway assemblage currently known from China
• Two distinctive and mutually exclusive ichnoassemblages in one tracksite
• Chinese pterosaur tracks show less of a size range than those reported from Korea.

The Lotus Fortress tracksite in the Qijiang National Geological Park, in Qijiang District, Chongqing Municipality consists of two distinct assemblages associated with different surfaces (Qijiang Layers 1 and 2). The lower of these two assemblages, here labeled as the “Wupus-Pteraichnus ichnoassemblage” is dominated by multiple, mainly parallel trackways of a small tridactyl and five trackways of pterosaurs (Pteraichnus). The upper surface assemblage, here labeled as the “Caririchnium ichnoassemblage”, is dominated by the tracks of ornithopods (Caririchnium lotus). Here we give a detailed description of the Pteraichnus tracks and evaluate their paleoecological significance together with other reports of pterosaur tracks from East Asia.