Over 240 Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in East China

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

A team of Chinese paleontologists has identified more than 240 fossilized dinosaur footprints in southeast China’s Fujian Province, the first traces of dinosaur activity found in the province.

The dinosaur track site in Shanghang County, covering an area of about 1,600 square meters, is the largest and the most diverse such site discovered in China dating back to the Upper Cretaceous period, according to scientists.

The 80-million-year-old tracks in Shanghang County were left by at least eight types of dinosaurs, including sauropods, large and small theropods and ornithopods, scientists said yesterday at a news conference held in the provincial capital Fuzhou.

Fossil dinosaur footprints are discovered in Shanghang County, Longyan City, Fujian Province, China, November 9, 2020. /Xinhua

“Judging from the size of the footprints, which were 8 to 55 centimeters long, lengths of the dinosaurs range from 1 meter to 10 meters,” said Xing Lida, a member of the research team and associate professor at the China University of Geosciences.

The footprints included three-toed imprints left by carnivorous theropods, which stood out with sharp claw marks; sauropod footprints that resemble large round pits; and other three-toed marks “that look like clover leaves” left by hadrosaurs, the researcher said.

The finding is of particular significance given the scarcity of Upper Cretaceous dinosaur footprints in China, he added.

The site also revealed footprints over 30cm that were left by large bird-like Deinonychosauria, the first such finding of the Upper Cretaceous dinosaur nationwide, Xing said.

Source: Xinhua