First report of turtle tracks from the Lower Cretaceous of Korea

A partial trackway of a turtle from the Jinju Formation (Sindong Group) is the first report of Mesozoic turtle tracks from Korea and the first report of traces of an aquatic tetrapod from Korea. Six tracks show a partial trackway configuration inferred to represent a partially buoyant trackmaker, possibly engaged in “bottom walking” behavior. Although turtle tracks often co-occur with crocodylian tracks in Cretaceous coastal plain facies in other regions, especially North America, to date there are no such co-occurrences in east Asia. This suggests that in Asia paleoenvironments suitable for turtles were quite widespread, but paleoenvironments were not suitable for crocodylians.