According to the Paleozoological Museum of China, based on bone fossils, China has named at least 338 dinosaur species. That means that these dinosaurs were alive during the Jurassic to late Cretaceous periods. In fact, no other place on earth can claim that they have as many fossilized dinosaur footprints as China.
And just recently, another major discovery has been made in China, except it was found in one of the most unexpected places, one of the restaurants in Leshan, Sichuan Province.
Considering Leshan is a modern city, the courtyard eatery was actually located on top of a farmland where these dinosaur prints have been buried beneath the soil. Interestingly, the footprints happened to belong to a pair of sauropods, which were the humongous long-necked dinosaurs that looked like the brontosaurus that was equal to a giant whale in both weight and length.
Paleontologist and associate professor at the China University of Geosciences, Lida Xing, told USA TODAY in a report on the story that he and his team were able to confirm the existence of the footprints through 3D scans they made of the floor.
The paleontologists believe that these footprints were made 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. This also happened to be the dinosaurs’ last era before the asteroid that killed them all struck the earth around 65 million years ago. Supposedly the animals were around 26 feet in length, or roughly 8 meters in length.
Upon the discovery of these footprints, the owner of the restaurant has closed off the area where the research is currently ongoing.
Considering how quickly China has grown and developed over the years, paleontologists like Dr. Xing and others like him don’t always have the chance to check areas with dinosaur fossils and footprints before they get built over. This is also why the restaurant owner was kind enough to allow them the rare opportunity to do the work they need to in order to obtain the information they need.
Here is a video from New China talking about this amazing find.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!
True Activist / Report a typo
