Jurassic dinosaur footprints have been found in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, and are estimated to be up to 8 meters long

On the 11th, a research team from China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Yanchang Petroleum Group and the University of Colorado and other institutions jointly announced that they had found a set of well-preserved dinosaur footprints and turtle swimming tracks in Ansai District, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province.

In August last year, Hui Ruirui, an employee of the exploration department of the Xingzichuan Oil Production Plant of Yanchang Petroleum Group, and Ma Lang and Li Xinwei, resident personnel of the Yanchang Petroleum Group Research Institute, inadvertently discovered dinosaur footprints near Majiagou Village in Ansai District. In December of the same year, the Xing Lida research group of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) went to the site with the support of the oil production plant to investigate the site and confirmed and newly discovered a series of vertebrate footprints in Anseliugou, including theropod dinosaur footprints, turtle swimming tracks, paleovertebrate insect traces and other paleontological remains.

Images of turtle footprint fossils provided by Xing Lida's team (provided by respondents)

According to Associate Professor Xing Lida, the vertebrate footprints of Liugou Valley are located on a falling rock, preserved on the level of fine-grained sandstone in earth yellow and light yellow-green, including 5 isolated dinosaur footprints and 6 isolated turtle footprints, as well as mud crack structures, wave marks and fossil invertebrate remains.

Xing Lida said that the theropod dinosaur footprints found were three-toed and sharp, although the length-to-width ratio of the two well-preserved footprint specimens was significantly lower than that of the classic Shredosaurus footprints, and had wider inter-toe horns, but due to the small number of specimens and poor preservation, it could not be more finely divided, and scholars classified them into the Shredosaurus footprint family.

Xing Lida's team photographed fossils of large theropod dinosaur footprints in Liugou (provided by interviewees)

"Extrapolating from the size of the footprint, at least two theropod dinosaurs of different sizes passed by and left their mark at the footprint site. According to estimates, the body length of the tracers is 8.1 meters and 6.5 meters, respectively, of which the size of the former is very close to that of large theropod dinosaurs, such as Allosaurus, Megalodon and so on. Xing Lida said.

In addition, a number of turtle footprints have been found at the Liugou Ridge footprints, all of which are claw-like marks of three or four toes, 2.3 cm to 11.4 cm long, and the toe marks usually appear as elongated claw marks, with the inter-toe horns as small as almost zero - the claw marks are almost parallel to each other.

Xing Lida said the appearance of the largest footprint specimen of Liugou Valley confirmed the presence of large theropod dinosaurs in the area during the Middle Jurassic period. In addition, most of the previous turtle footprint fossils came from the newer Cretaceous strata of the era. Therefore, the swimming track of Liugou In this study is currently the oldest turtle footprint in China. (Reporters Yao Youming and Lin Juan)

Source: Xinhua News Agency