Palaeontology

Gigantic dinosaur footprint found in Mongolia

By T.K. Randall
October 1, 2016 ·  12 comments

The footprint was made by one of the largest ever land animals. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Nobu Tamura Like something from a Godzilla movie, the enormous footprint, which was discovered by scientists from the Okayama University of Science, dates back up to 90 million years and is so large that it is almost the size of an adult human being.

"This is a very rare discovery as it's a well-preserved fossil footprint that is more than a meter long with imprints of its claws," the university said in a statement about the find.The creature responsible for the footprint was believed to be part of a group of particularly large sauropod dinosaurs known as the Titanosaurs which weighed up to 90 tonnes.

42-inch-long dinosaur footprint discovered in Mongolia desert: https://t.co/XAQa2cADFY

— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) September 30, 2016

There is still however much more for scientists to learn about the discovery.

"Specific structural features of this dinosaur make it differ from its relatives, according to what was said in an official release," said Sergei Leshchinsky of Tomsk State University. "We cannot say that this reptile was, for example, sturdier than the others because it is unknown yet."

Source: Sputnik International | Comments (12)

Tags: Dinosaur, Titanosaur