China
Important “piece of the puzzle”: Chinese wants to eat in a restaurant – and discovers 100 million year old dinosaur tracks in the ground
The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago
© Yay Images / Imago Images
In China, a guest looked very closely and discovered dinosaur footprints in the courtyard of a restaurant – an important find for science.
Ou Hongtao just wanted to eat something when he made an amazing discovery at a restaurant. He noticed unusual shapes on the floor in the courtyard in the restaurant. Coincidentally, the guest was also very interested in paleontology and immediately had a guess: it had to be dinosaur tracks.
That sounds adventurous, because the dinosaurs have been extinct for about 65 million years. And yet it turned out that the attentive restaurant guest was right. With his observation, he turned to Xing Lida, a professor of geosciences at the Chinese University in Beijing. After thorough investigation, he confirmed that the tracks in the city of Leshan in the southwest of the country are actually about 100 million years old and came from dinosaurs.
Footprints are from giant species of dinosaurs
These are said to be impressions of two sauropods. They were the most widespread group of herbivorous dinosaurs and are considered to be the largest land-dwelling animals on Earth’s history: sauropods could grow up to 30 meters long and weigh 70 tons. Their long neck and long tail are typical.
According to the scientists, the footprints in the Chinese restaurant belonged to brontosaurs, which belong to the group of sauropods. Based on the finds, the researchers conclude that the body was eight meters tall. The footprints are believed to be from the Cretaceous period, which began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago.
This is what makes the find so remarkable. Dinosaur fossils have been found before in Sichuan, but they were from the Jurassic—the period that preceded the Cretaceous. Scientist Xing Lida spoke of a “puzzle piece” that provides information about the Cretaceous period in the region. It is rare to find dinosaur tracks in city centers because these are usually built over with houses.
Sources: CNN / “China Daily”