Shengjinkou Formation
{{Short description|Geologic formation in Xinjiang, China}}
{{Infobox rockunit
| name = Shengjinkou Formation
| image =Shengjinkou Formation.png
| caption =Two outcrops of the Shengjinkou Formation where the footprints of Pteraichnus wuerhoensis have been discovered. Photographed before 2021.
| type = Geological formation
| age = {{fossilrange|Valanginian}}
| period = Valanginian
| prilithology = Mudstone, siltstone
| otherlithology =
| namedfor =
| namedby =Xia Gongjun
| region = Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
| country = {{CHN}}
| coordinates = {{coord|46.0|N|85.8|E|display=inline,title}}
| paleocoordinates = {{coord|45.0|N|81.9|E|display=inline}}
| unitof = Tugulu Group
| subunits =
| underlies = Lianmuqin Formation
| overlies = Kalaza Formation
| thickness =
| extent = Junggar Basin
| area =
| map = {{Location map+ | China Xinjiang Northern
| relief = 1
| width = 250
| float = center
| places =
{{Location map~ | China Xinjiang Northern
| lat_deg = 46.0
| lon_deg = 85.8
| mark = Green pog.svg
| marksize = 12
}}
}}
| map_caption =
|year_ts=1956}}
The Shengjinkou Formation is an Early Cretaceous (Valanginian)-aged Konservat-Lagerstätte composed of "interbedded red green and yellow variegated mudstones and siltstones" that is part of the larger Tugulu Group of China.{{Cite journal|last1=Song |first1=J. |last2=Zhong |first2=Y. |last3=Jiang |first3=S. |last4=Wang |first4=X. |year=2025 |title=The first ornithocheiromorph humerus from Wuerho (Urho), China, with a new isotopic age of the Tugulu Group |journal=Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências |volume=97 |issue=Suppl. 1 |at=e20240557 |doi=10.1590/0001-3765202520240557 |doi-access=free }}{{cite book |last=Lucas |first=Spencer G |title=Chinese Fossil vertebrates |date=2001 |pages=158–159 |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-08483-8}}{{cite book|title=Chinese Fossil Vertebrates|author=Lucas, S.G.|date=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231084833|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svFUrN8xBpwC|page=158|access-date=2015-01-05}} Dinosaur and pterosaur remains have been recovered from the formation.{{cite book |editor-last=Weishampel |editor-first=David B. |editor-last2=Dodson |editor-first2=Peter |editor-last3=Osmólska |editor-first3=Halszka |year=2004 |title=The Dinosauria|edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZFDb_iw40C |location=Berkeley|publisher= University of California Press |pages=1–880 |accessdate=2019-02-21|isbn=0-520-24209-2}}
History
The Shengjikou Formation was first identified in a 1956 manuscript by Xia Gongjun.{{cite book |last1=Shen |first1=Y.-b. |first2=N. J. |last2=Mateer |year=1992 |chapter=An outline of the Cretaceous System in northern Xinjiang, western China |editor1=N. J. Mateer |editor2=P.-j. Chen |title=Aspects of Nonmarine Cretaceous Geology |publisher=China Ocean Press |location=Beijing |pages=50–77 |chapter-url=http://ir.nigpas.ac.cn/handle/332004/8166}} The type locality is near Turpan City in the Xinjiang Region of China. The first pterosaur and dinosaur remains from the Shengjinkou Formation were identified by 1973, including several skulls belonging to Dsungaripterus weii{{cite book |last=Dong |first=ZM |chapter=Cretaceous stratigraphy of Wuerho District, Dsungar (Zunggar) Basin |title=Reports of Paleontological Expedition to Sinkiang (II): Pterosaurian Fauna from Wuerho, Sinkiang. Memoirs of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Academia Sinica |year=1973 |volume=11 |pages=1–7}} and indeterminate sauropod remains possibly belonging to Asiatosaurus mongoliensis.{{cite journal | last1=Xing | first1=Lida | last2=Lockley | first2=Martin G. | last3=Jia | first3=Chengkai | last4=Klein | first4=Hendrik | last5=Niu | first5=Kecheng | last6=Zhang | first6=Lijun | last7=Qi | first7=Liqi | last8=Chou | first8=Chunyong | last9=Romilio | first9=Anthony | last10=Wang | first10=Donghao | last11=Zhang | first11=Yu | last12=Persons | first12=W Scott | last13=Wang | first13=Miaoyan | title=Lower cretaceous avian-dominated, theropod, thyreophoran, pterosaur and turtle track assemblages from the Tugulu Group, Xinjiang, China: ichnotaxonomy and palaeoecology | journal=PeerJ | volume=9 | date=2021-05-28 | issn=2167-8359 | pmid=34123592 | pmc=8166242 | doi=10.7717/peerj.11476 | doi-access=free | page=e11476}}
In 2006 from the Hami region in Xinjiang, the Shengjinkou Formation, a Konservat-Lagerstätte was reported, in this case lake sediments allowing for an exceptional preservation of fossils. The same year, Qiu Zhanxiang and Wang Banyue started official excavations. Part of the finds consisted of dense concentrations of pterosaur bones, associated with soft tissues and eggs. The site represented a nesting colony that storm floods had covered with mud. Dozens of individuals could be secured from a total that in 2014 was estimated to run into the many hundreds.
Dinosaur footprints were collected from the formation before 2011 and isolated specimens were collected by the local Moguicheng Dinosaur and Bizarre Stone Museum;{{Cite journal |last1=Xing |first1=Li-Da |last2=Harris |first2=Jerald D. |last3=Jia |first3=Cheng-Kai |last4=Luo |first4=Zheng-Jiang |last5=Wang |first5=Shen-Na |last6=An |first6=Jian-Fu |date=2011 |title=Early cretaceous bird-dominated and dinosaur footprint assemblages from the northwestern margin of the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1871174X11000102 |journal=Palaeoworld |language=en |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=308–321 |doi=10.1016/j.palwor.2011.01.001}}{{Cite journal |last1=Xing |first1=Lida |last2=Lockley |first2=Martin G. |last3=McCrea |first3=Richard T. |last4=Gierliński |first4=Gerard D. |last5=Buckley |first5=Lisa G. |last6=Zhang |first6=Jianping |last7=Qi |first7=Liqi |last8=Jia |first8=Chengkai |date=2013 |title=First record of Deltapodus tracks from the Early Cretaceous of China |journal=Cretaceous Research |volume=42 |pages=55–65 |doi=10.1016/j.cretres.2013.01.006 |bibcode=2013CrRes..42...55X |issn=0195-6671}} more specimens were discovered between 2015 and 2019.
Dinosaur fossils and pterosaur footprints were reported again from the formation in 2021{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Yang |last2=Wang |first2=Xiaolin |last3=Jiang |first3=Shunxing |date=2021-06-01 |title=A new pterosaur tracksite from the Lower Cretaceous of Wuerho, Junggar Basin, China: inferring the first putative pterosaur trackmaker |journal=PeerJ |volume=9 |pages=e11361 |doi=10.7717/peerj.11361 |issn=2167-8359|doi-access=free |pmid=34131515 |pmc=8176908 }} and dinosaur footprints were first reported from the formation in 2023.{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Yang |last2=Jiang |first2=Shunxing |last3=Yan |first3=Feng |last4=Ma |first4=Yingxia |last5=Wang |first5=Xiaolin |date=2023-09-26 |title=The first record of Lower Cretaceous theropod tracks in Turpan-Hami Basin, Xinjiang, northwestern China |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2023.2259419 |journal=Historical Biology |language=en |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2023.2259419 |issn=0891-2963}}
Paleofauna
File:Shengjinkou Formation Fossil Fauna.png
- cf. Asiatosaurus mongoliensis
- Dsungaripterus weii
- Noripterus complicidens{{Cite journal |last1=Zheng |first1=Daran |last2=Chang |first2=Su-Chin |last3=Ramezani |first3=Jahandar |last4=Xu |first4=Xing |last5=Xu |first5=Honghe |last6=Wang |first6=He |last7=Pei |first7=Rui |last8=Fang |first8=Yanan |last9=Wang |first9=Jun |last10=Wang |first10=Bo |last11=Zhang |first11=Haichun |date=2023-05-10 |title=Calibrating the Early Cretaceous Urho Pterosaur Fauna in Junggar Basin and implications for the evolution of the Jehol Biota |doi=10.1130/B36795.1 |journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin |issn=0016-7606}}
- cf. Eubrontes
- Hamipterus tianshanensis{{cite journal |display-authors=6 |vauthors=Wang X, Kellner AW, Jiang S, Wang Q, Ma Y, Paidoula Y, Cheng X, Rodrigues T, Meng X, Zhang J, Li N, Zhou Z |date=June 2014 |title=Sexually dimorphic tridimensionally preserved pterosaurs and their eggs from China |url=https://phys.org/news/2014-06-3d-pterosaur-eggs-parents.html |journal=Current Biology |volume=24 |issue=12 |pages=1323–1330 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.054 |pmid=24909325 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2014CBio...24.1323W }}
- Hamititan xinjiangensis{{cite journal | vauthors = Wang X, Bandeira KL, Qiu R, Jiang S, Cheng X, Ma Y, Kellner AW | title = The first dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna, China | journal = Scientific Reports | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = Article number 14962 | year = 2021 | doi = 10.1038/s41598-021-94273-7 | doi-access = free | pmid = 34385481 | pmc = 8361124 | bibcode = 2021NatSR..1114962W }}
- Pteraichnus wuerhoensis
- Silutitan sinensis
- Somphospondyli (?) indet. (=Sauropoda indet.)
- Theropoda indet.
- Uighuroniscus sinkiangensis{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Xuri |last2=Tan |first2=Kai |last3=Lu |first3=Liwu |last4=Li |first4=Tao |last5=Cai |first5=Qingqing |date=2018 |title=A New Genus of Paleonisciformes from the Early Cretaceous Longjiang Formation in Heilongjiang Province, China |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-6724.13580 |journal=Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition |language=en |volume=92 |issue=3 |pages=889–896 |doi=10.1111/1755-6724.13580 |bibcode=2018AcGlS..92..889W |issn=1000-9515}}
- Manasichthys tuguluensis
- Manasichthys elongates
- Dsungarichthys bilineatus
- Bogdaichthys fukangensis
- Bogdaichthys serratus