VERTEBRATA PALASIATICA Earliest records of theropod and mammal-like tetrapod footprints in the Upper Triassic of Sichuan Basin, China

Abstract Eubrontes- and Grallator-sized theropod footprints are known from two localities in the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation of the Sichuan Basin, southwest China. The larger footprints include a partial trackway with two successive pes imprints that were named as Pengxianpus cifengensis. Compared with robust Eubrontes, they have slender digits, less well-defined pad impressions and display a wider digit divarication similar to the theropod ichnotaxon Kayentapus from the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic. Presently, a synonymy of the latter cannot be proved conclusively and the ichnotaxon is retained here. For both footprints, some small areas preserve skin texture with polygonal scales, the clearest preservation is in a small area on the metatarsal-phalangeal pad IV of the second imprint. The smaller theropod footprints are also part of an incomplete trackway. They show a wide digit divarication similar to Kayentapus and Pengxianpus but they are here tentatively referred to theropod footprints indet. A peculiarity on the surface with Pengxianpus is the presence of small pes or manus imprints that can be assigned to mammal-like tetrapods somewhat similar to those known from Triassic-Jurassic strata of North America and southern Africa. This is the first report of mammal-like footprints in the Triassic o