Cretaceous dinosaur tracks from Maling Mountain of Xinyi City, Jiangsu Province:From tiger to carnivorous dinosaur and from folklore to paleontology

Four enigmatic depressions, traditionally referred to as "tiger's paw traces" and "human footprints" from "Li Cunxiao Fighting Tiger" site of the Maling Mountain area in Xinyi City of Jiangsu Province are here interpreted as dinosaur tracks belonging to the Early Cretaceous Tianjialou Formation of the Dasheng Group. Only one of the "tiger's paw traces" at the largest depth preserves recognizable digit tracks, suggesting it is a left theropod track, with posterior medial hallux trace, forming part of a linear trackway with steps of~50cm. Alternatively, the track may be a small sauropod right pes track forming part of a trackway in which the left side footprints were not registered. Malingshan tracksite demonstrates another case of how dinosaur tracks influenced Chinese folklore.