Smaller than a dime
Have you ever seen dinosaur footprints?
I saw it in Zigong!
On June 26th, a team of Chinese and foreign paleontologists, including Jiangshan Associate Research Librarian, Peng Guangzhao Research Librarian, Ye Yong Research Librarian, and Associate Professor Xing Lida of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), officially announced:
Found in Zigong Fushun County
A batch of well-preserved dinosaur footprints
Among them is one only 10.2 mm long
Tiny dinosaur footprints
The footprint becomes current
The smallest dinosaur footprint ever recorded in China!
How were these dinosaur footprints discovered?
This has to start in July 1998.
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Ding Yongfu and Ding Yongjian, villagers of Wuli Village, Yongnian Town, Fushun County, decided to use the open space next to their houses to dig a pond to store water in order to solve the problem of daily washing and laundry water at home. Because the surface of the loose pile is full of hard yellow-gray sandstone, the Ding brothers spread the long strips of stone they had mined around the pond for everyone to walk.
Although people are walking
Sometimes some rocky surfaces are also noticed
Covered with "chicken feet" shapes
But people didn't think much about it
With the continuous discovery of dinosaur footprint fossils in recent years, the continuous deepening of dinosaur footprint research and the continuous strengthening of publicity reports, more and more people have known and understood dinosaur footprint fossils, and Ding Yongfu's daughter Ding Li is one of them.
April 2017
She posted several photos online next to her hometown pond
Take a photo of the stepping stone and ask for the photo
Is "chicken feet" a dinosaur footprint?
The Zigong Dinosaur Museum immediately contacted Ding Li after learning of this news, and asked in detail about the specific location of the rock in the photo and the people who needed to be contacted to investigate.
Beginning of May 2017
The Zigong Dinosaur Museum will first visit the site
Confirmed to be dinosaur footprints no doubt
After a survey of the outcrops of the surrounding rock formations
Scholars believe that the fossil footprint produces layers
It is a lower Jurassic artesian well group
Moreover, the research team of Zigong Dinosaur Museum found that there were at least 44 three-toed footprints on the No. 5 rock slab after data analysis. One of the very tiny footprints, 10.2 mm long and 9.6 mm wide, had three distinct toes, the third toe being the most prominent, without a clear toe pad, and a relatively blunt paw print on each toe.
Confirmed by experts
This footprint is currently the smallest dinosaur footprint recorded in China
These specimens are made up of
Left behind by a newborn baby dinosaur?
Or was it left behind by an adult small dinosaur?
The jury is still out.
However, a series of footprints of varying sizes but relatively consistent morphology are preserved on the slabs, which may represent a collection of footprints of small theropod dinosaurs at different stages of development. Therefore, scholars tend to believe that the tiny footprints of Fushun were left by small dinosaurs that were just born, and the size of the footprint makers is estimated to be about 12 centimeters long, roughly equivalent to the size of today's sparrow.
Experts said that as a typical relic fossil, the combination of footprints found in Fushun contains rich information, which is the epitome of the dynamic behavior of dinosaurs at that time, and can judge the movement state of dinosaurs at that time according to these dinosaur footprints, such as walking, running and even swimming.
Someone found "dinosaurs" on a walk in Zigong before
There are dinosaur footprints on the back of the villagers' stepping stones
What surprises will Zigong bring to us in this dinosaur nest?
Stay tuned!
Source: Zigong Network
Reporter: Zhou Shu