Footprints discovered on a beach in Wales may belong to a dinosaur that lived there more than 200 million years ago, experts say.
Paleontologists at the Natural History Museum in London said the footprints, which date back to the Triassic period, could be from a sauropod or some close relative of the species.
“We know that the oldest sauropods were living in England at the time, as bones of Camelotia, a primary sauropod, were found in Somerset rocks dating from the same period,” said Dr. Susannah Maidment, a paleontologist at the museum involved in the research. , in a statement that disclosed the findings.
“We don’t know if the species is responsible for the footprint, but there are other clues that suggest something of the genus,” he said.
Maidment and her colleague, Professor Paul Barrett, initially received images uploaded from the Penarth Beach trails by an amateur paleontologist in 2020. At first, they were skeptical of the findings.
“We get a lot of inquiries from the public about things that can be picked up, but many are geological marks that can confuse,” said Maidment.
“However, from the photos, we thought there was a big possibility that something like that could be a footprint and it would be worth a look”
The pair worked with colleagues and discovered that the site had been previously inspected by Cindy Howells, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Wales, on the French team, and by a group from Cardiff University.
Maidment and Barrent came to the scene to investigate the path and record measurements.
“We believed that the footprints we saw in Penarth were consistently spaced to suggest an animal walk. We also saw displacement hoops where the mud had been pushed up. These structures are characteristic of active movement through soft terrain,” said Barrett in the museum’s announcement of the findings.
The findings could also reveal information about the behavioral qualities of dinosaurs — the way they walked and traveled in herds, for example.
“These types of trails are not particularly common across the world so we believe this is an interesting addition to our knowledge of Triassic life in the UK. The record of Triassic dinosaurs in this country is quite small, so anything we can find from the period adds to our picture what was happening at that time,” said Barrett.
The footprints will remain on the beach until they are eroded by the tide, the museum said.
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
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