The Okayama University of Science announced on September 28 the discovery of an enormous footprint of a dinosaur in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. The footprints are believed to be of a dinosaur which roamed in these parts some 70 million years ago.
The discovery was made by a joint team of researchers from the Institute of Paleontology and Geology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the Okayama University of Science. The dinosaur print was bigger than 100 cm and could be termed as the rarest of the rare find.
The track was unearthed in a geological layer which dated back to the late Cretaceous period which is almost 70 to 90 million years ago. The footprint is believed to be the left hind foot of a giant plant-eating sauropod similar to Titanosaurus. This information was given by to Shinobu Ishigaki, who is the leader of the Japanese team.
The biggest prize will be a fossilized skeleton of such a dinosaur which the team is hopeful of finding eventually. A whole skeleton of such a dinosaur is still to be found in Mongolia. It does not reduce the importance of the footprints which is as valuable as a fossilized bone of a dino. It will give us valuable insight into the shape of the dinosaur’s feet and the manner in which these gargantuan creatures walked.
Footprints are relevant evidence of dinosaurs, and a lot of information can be gleaned out from these footprints. Similar footprints have been seen in Morocco and France. However, the latest is perhaps the clearest with signs of nails. Most footprints are fuzzy, but this discovery is very important because the shape of the claw is clearly visible and so is the sole of the dinosaur’s foot.
