<h1>【NewsFlash】Xinjiang found the smallest stegosaurus footprint fossil! </h1>
Stegosaurus is one of the most famous dinosaurs, and their symbol is the two huge rows of bone plates on their backs and the four long spikes on their tails. The Stegosaurus family has a wide distribution and a long history, and we in China are the most concentrated stegosaurs, and recently paleontologists have found fossil stegosaur footprints in Xinjiang, and it is the smallest known stegosaurus footprints!
Have you heard of this place in Urho? If you haven't heard of it, do you know that there is a "devil's city" in Xinjiang? The "Devil's City" is in Urhe, in fact, it is not a city with ghosts, but a unique and typical Yadan landform. Geographically, Urhe is located on the northwestern edge of the Junggar Basin and belongs to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Image note: The Devil's Town in Urho, picture from the Internet
Picture note: Urhe's location in Xinjiang is indicated, and the picture comes from the Internet
Dinosaur fans will certainly be familiar with Urho, as The Urhosaurus has been found here. Urhoosaurus belonged to the stegosaurus class, and was a very late stegosaurus, living during the Early Cretaceous period, about 132 million to 129 million years ago.
Image note: Urholong restoration, picture from the network
Urheosaurus was the largest member of the Stegosaurus family, with a model species of Flat Urhosaurus homheni with a body length of up to 7 meters, a height of 2.5 meters and a weight of about 4 tons. Although it belongs to the same family as stegosaurus, Urhelong has its own unique characteristics, the two rib plates on its back are neither tall nor wide, but become blunt and flat, as if they were stunted, which may be characteristic of late stegosaurs.
Image note: Urhosaurus compared to the size of humans and elephants, image from the internet
Illustration: Urhoosaurus restoration, note its low bone plate, picture from the network
Urhe Dragon has been named as early as 1973, and the name is Dong Zhiming, who has the nickname of "Dragon King of China". Dinosaurs found in the same strata as Urhoosaurus include Asiatosaurus, Kelmayisaurus, Phaedrolosaurus and Tugulusaurus. In 2002, a large number of fossil footprints were found in the local Lower Cretaceous Turgulu group of lakes. In 2009, China University of Geosciences and China University of Petroleum Karamay Campus and Xinjiang Oilfield Company formed a research team to investigate and study the footprint fossils of Urho.
Among the numerous footprint fossils, paleontologists have identified footprint fossils of theropods, pterosaurs, birds, turtles, and stegosaurs. Among them, the stegosaurus footprint fossil is the most remarkable, because although China is the country with the largest number of stegosaur species, the stegosaurus footprint fossil is the first to be found. In 2013, paleontologists published the results of a study of stegosaurus footprint fossils, including a pre-footprint fossil and a post-footprint fossil, belonging to the Deltapodus curriei, which has very typical stegosaurus footprint characteristics, such as three short and blunt functional toes on the hind feet, which share most of the weight of the stegosaurus body.
Photo note: Stegosaurus footprints found in Karamay in 2009, image from the Internet
The newly discovered stegosaurus footprint fossil is also a post-footprint, apparently belonging to the Kochsch triangular footprint, but only 5.7 centimeters long, equivalent to the length of an adult's thumb. If compared to the footprints of adult stegosaurs, the length is only 15% of the footprints of adult individuals. Paleontologists speculate that the footprint fossil was left by a small guy who was only 1 meter long, and it was still a juvenile individual. Considering that only one type of stegosaurus has been found in the Tugulu formation, this small footprint is most likely left by a small Urhoosaurus.
The latest discovery is a stegosaurus footprint of only 5.7 centimeters in length, image from China University of Geosciences
Imagine that today's desolate Urho region was once a vast lake during the Cretaceous period, surrounded by a paradise of green forests, where various dinosaurs and paleontology lived. A newborn little Urhe dragon followed his parents through the quagmire by the lake, leaving two small footprints, but he did not expect that one of the footprints had been baptized for hundreds of millions of years, and finally became a dinosaur footprint fossil that was found by humans, proving that it once existed, which was really wonderful.
This fossil of the world's smallest stegosaurus footprint found in Xinjiang is of great significance to our exploration of the life and evolution of stegosaurus!
Photo note: Fossil restoration of footprints, author @ mysterious giant beast Spinosaurus
Thanks to the relevant information provided by China University of Geosciences, the relevant research has been published in the professional journal of sedimentary geology "Palaios", and some of the pictures are from the Internet
Image / Network (Intrusion and Deletion)
Text / Jiang's Little Thief Dragon (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Jiang's Little Thief Dragon