High-Altitude and Cold Habitat for the Early Cretaceous Feathered Dinosaurs at Sihetun, Western Liaoning, China

During the Early Cretaceous, significant tectonic regime transformation occurred in East China. Meanwhile, the Jehol Biota, which contains world-famous feathered dinosaurs, flourished. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the influence of tectonic regime transformation on regional topography and climates and the possible climatic causes of the unique characteristics of these dinosaurs. Here, we address these issues by applying clumped isotope paleothermometry to Early Cretaceous carbonates in NE China. In the Sihetun area, the mean annual paleotemperature derived from paleosol carbonates was 5.9 +/- 1.7 degrees C, and the paleoelevation was 2.8-4.1 km during the Early Cretaceous. The topographic evolution was closely related to the subduction of the paleo-Pacific plate beneath East Asia during this period. Our results suggest a high altitude and cold habitat with frozen winters for the Jehol Biota in the Sihetun area, which implies possible climate-Keywords:influenced evolution of the feathered characteristic of the dinosaurs.