This combo photo provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Oct. 11, 2023 shows the photographs (above) and outline drawings (below) of fossilized footprints of theropod dinosaurs lived more than 120 million years ago in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Chinese Academy of Sciences/Handout via Xinhua)
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have confirmed that a group of fossilized footprints found in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, were left by flesh-eating dinosaurs that lived on Earth more than 120 million years ago.
The dinosaur track site is located in the Turpan-Hami Basin. A research team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology has discovered a total of nine small footprints on the site since 2006.
Considering the length of the footprints, scientists estimated that the dinosaurs had a hip height of approximately 65 cm, a body length of 171 cm and a weight of 30 kg, indicating that the tracks were made by small theropods.
After studying the invertebrate traces, the sedimentary structure and the layers of rock on the site, they concluded that the footprints were likely left along the shoreline of a shallow lake.
The results of the study were recently published online in the international journal Historical Biology.
The team uncovered abundant and diverse vertebrate footprints in Hami for the first time, including the theropod tracks and tracks left by sauropods, birds and pterosaurs, according to the study.
Fossilized footprints can reveal information about ecological habits that fossilized skeletons cannot, said Wang Xiaolin, the study's lead researcher.
"Apart from type, hip height, body length and weight, fossilized footprints can also offer clues as to other features of the trackmakers, such as movement speeds, predatory behaviors and the environment in which they were preserved," Wang said.
The scientist said that these findings provide direct evidence of the presence of theropod dinosaurs within the Hami pterosaur fauna. "This area has the world's richest collection of pterosaur fossils. Hundreds of millions of pterosaurs once thrived here, making it a pterosaur Eden."
A dinosaur museum is under construction near the footprint site to help protect these important fossils and "provide a window into the mysterious flying reptiles that once thrived on Earth," Wang said. ■
