A life reconstruction of 110 million years ago the stegosaur track manufacturers and paleo environment. Credit: Kamitoge
A single footprint that left a cat-sized dinosaur about 100 million years ago was discovered in China by an international team of paleontologists.
Anthony Romilio, a researcher at the University of Queensland, was part of the team that investigated the orbit, originally found by associate professor Lida Xing of the China University of Geosciences (Beijing).
“This footprint was made by a herbivorous, armored dinosaur known broadly as a stegosaurus – the family of dinosaurs that includes the famous stegosaurus,” said Dr. Romilio.
‘Like the stegosaurus, this small dinosaur probably had adult nails on its tail and bony plates along its back. With a footprint of less than six centimeters, it is the smallest stegosaurus footprint in the world.
“This is in stark contrast to other stegosaurus prints found at the Chinese track yard, which measured up to 30 centimeters, and prints found in places like Broome in Western Australia, where it can be up to 80 centimeters. “
The smallest stegosaurus footprint in the world (less than 6 cm long), Xingjiang, China. Credit: Lida Xing
The small footprint has similar characteristics to other stegosaurus footprints with three short, wide, round toe impressions.
However, researchers found that the print was not elongated, like larger counterpart prints found on the track, suggesting that the young stegosaurus had a different behavior.
“Stegosaurs usually walk with their heels on the ground, just like humans, but on four feet that create long footprints,” said Dr. Romilio said.
A stegosaurus footprint of the same site (more than 30 cm long), Xingjiang, China. Credit: Lida Xing
‘The small orbit shows that this dinosaur pulled up from the ground with its heel, just as a bird or cat does today.
“We have only seen shortened tracks before as dinosaurs walked on two legs.”
Associate Professor Xing said it was likely that young stegosaurs were adversaries.
“This may be possible because it is the ancestral condition and an attitude of most dinosaurs, but the stegosaurus could also have transitioned to heel run as it got older,” said dr. Xing said.
“A complete set of footprints from these small footprints will give us the answer to this question, but unfortunately we have only one footprint.”
It is difficult for the researchers to find the small tracks on pressure tracks.
“The footprints made by small armored dinosaurs are much rarer than those formed by other groups of dinosaurs,” said Associate Professor Xing. “Now that our study has identified nine different dinosaur trace sites from this area, we’ll take a closer look to see if we can find more of these small traces.”
The paper is published in Palaios and brings together researchers from China, the US, Germany and Australia.
Reference: “Stegosaur Track Assemblage From Xinjiang, China, featuring the Smallest Known Stegosaur Record” by Lida Xing, Martin G. Lockley, W. Scott Persons, IV, Hendrik Klein, Anthony Romilio, Donghao Wang and Miaoyan Wang, March 3, 2021, Palaios.
DOI: 10.2110 / palo.2020.036