First reports of a distinctive theropod track assemblage from the Jinju Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Korea provides strong correlations with China

•First report of three diagnostic theropod tracks from Jinju Formation Korea.•First report theropod tracks from Korea with reliable ichnotaxonomy.•Theropod tracks allow strong regional correlation with Aptian tracks from China.•Track assemblage obtained as part of major government regulated development.•First report in English showing scale of excavation and extent of material obtained.

Despite the extreme, well-documented abundance of tracks of herbivorous dinosaurs (ornithopods and sauropods), avian theropods and pterosaurs, from the Cretaceous of Korea the footprints of non-avian theropods have previously been reported only sporadically from the Cretaceous Gyeongsang Supergroup of Korea, without clear attribution to any ichnogenus. Here we report an assemblage of well-preserved theropod tracks from the Lower Cretaceous (?Aptian) Jinju Formation of the Jinju City area that contains distinctive ichnogenera including Grallator sensu lato, Corpulentapus and Asianopodus. These ichnotaxa were previously only known to co-occur in the Lower Cretaceous of China. In combination with other track evidence from the Lower Cretaceous of both China and Korea, this assemblage strengthens previous interpretations of the distinctive, apparently endemic nature of many East Asian dinosaurian ichnotaxa. The assemblage also helps refine debate over the age of track assemblages in the Lower Cretaceous of East Asia, and differences between assemblages from the lower and upper stages of the Lower Cretaceous.