滇东北地区中三叠统关岭组中发现爬行类足迹化石

Reptile trace fossils found in Middle Triassic Guanling Formation of northeast Yunnan area

滇东北地区中三叠统关岭组中首次发现的四足五趾爬行类动物足迹以大小足迹形式呈一条直线前后相伴出现,足迹形状与人手印非常相似,总体表现为第三趾最长,大拇指具有外翻弯曲特征,初步判断为"手兽"足迹,该发现对研究中生代爬行类生物种属、迁移、运动模式及古地理环境具有极其重要的意义。

In the Middle Triassic Guanling Formation in northeastern Yunnan,the authors discovered for the first time the footprints of the four-legged and five-toed reptile.These footprints are in a straight line,including large and small footprints,while large and small footprints appear in tandem.The shape of these footprints is very similar to that of human fingerprints.In general,the third toe is the longest and the thumb has an everted curve.It is initially judged as the footprint of"Chirotheriu".This discovery is of great sig-nificance for studying the species,migration,movement patterns of the Mesozoic reptiles and the paleogeographic environment.