A bird footprint assemblage of early Late Cretaceous age, Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province, China

A new Cretaceous bird ichnotaxon, Dongyangornipes sinensis ichnogen. et ichnosp. nov., is described. It is the first record of a webbed bird footprint in China. It was recovered from the early Late Cretaceous Jinhua Formation in Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province. It is characterized by comparatively small tridactyl footprints with a notably developed web structure without a hallux impression. The web impression of digits II–III is connected from the apex of digit II to the posterior third of digit III, whereas that between digits III and IV is linked from the apex of digit IV to the mid-point of digit III. Webbed footprints of Cretaceous birds have not been described previously from outside South Korea. Shorebird footprints without webbing, referred to Koreanaornis cf. hamanensis, are also present at the same site. The Dongyang bird footprint site is the southernmost locality of Mesozoic bird track sites in Asia.

► We emphasized the first webbed bird footprint was confirmed from the Mesozoic of China. ► This new webbed footprints is a new Cretaceous bird ichnotaxon, Dongyangornipes sinensis ichnogen. et ichnosp.► The webbed and non-webbed bird footprints are the first evidence of the presence of a bird in the southern part of China in the Cretaceous. ► Furthermore, the bird footprint site is the southernmost locality of the Mesozoic bird track sites in Asia.