Dinosaur Footprints Dating Back 139-Million-Years Found By Scientists Who Believe Giant Predator Even Pre-Dated The T. Rex

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The scientists believe the 50cm footprint belonged to a huge 10 metre predatory dinosaur (Image: CEN/Dinopark Munchehagen)

The scientists think the 50cm footprints belonged to a huge 10 metre beast that lived during the Cretaceous Period.

Dinosaur footprints dating back 139-million-years have been found by scientists who believe the giant predator even pre-dated the T. rex.

The scientists think the 50cm footprints belonged to a huge 10 metre beast that lived during the Cretaceous Period.

A team of geoscientists and palaeontologists discovered the prints in the Muenchehagen Dino-park in the north-western German state of Lower Saxony.

If their findings are correct, it would mean the dinosaur would have preceded the T. rex by five million years.

Expedition leader Nils Knoetschke said: "Underneath are the footprints of a very big, unknown predatory dinosaur whose body length is indicated at up to ten metres."

According to the team, dinosaur footprints previously found were those of dinosaurs only half that size.

Scientists and officials on the site where the footprint has been discovered (Image: CEN/Dinopark Munchehagen)

They added that no bones of a dinosaur that big and from that period have been found in Central Europe.

The most complete T. rex specimen found measures up to 12.3 metres in length, but this species lived in north-America.

These findings have lead the team to believe that the footprint in fact belongs to a whole new type of dinosaur, which has not yet been discovered.

An excavation team has now been sent out to the site to uncover the footprint and discover as much information as possible.

There are approximately 300 dinosaur footprints in the 2500 square metre surface of the Dino-park.

Remains of prehistoric crocodiles, turtles and sharks have also been discovered here in the past.

Knoetschke thanked modern technology for the findings, saying they were made possible thanks to modern methods like photogrammetry and 3D-scanning.

Excavation director Benjamin Englich plans to publish their findings as soon as the footprint has been uncovered and studied.

Source: www.mirror.co.uk