Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Palaeontologists have identified more than 20 dinosaur and other animal footprints on a rock wall in China’s Sichuan province. This new discovery has shed light on early dinosaur evolution.
The tracks were first found by a hiker in the city of Dujiangyan. They were confirmed to be authentic by a research team led by Xing Lida.
Xing is an associate professor at China University of Geosciences in Beijing. He said the discovery included footprints of different sizes. They were made by theropods, a type of dinosaur.
“What makes this site particularly valuable is that at least four layers preserve footprints, suggesting dinosaurs lived here for a long period,” Xing explained.
Researchers also found pieces of petrified wood near these tracks.
This special type of fossilised wood provides additional information about how the local ecosystem looked more than 200 million years ago.
