Dinosaur footprints from 100 million years ago found in restaurant in China

Miscellaneous / by admin / April 06, 2023

Dinosaur footprints were accidentally discovered on the stone floor of a restaurant in Sichuan, China. They were noticed back in the 1950s, when there was a residential building on this site, but then they did not attach any importance and smoothed over to level the floor.

In 2022, one of the visitors to the establishment suspected that these could be traces of some giant animals. Scientists from the China University of Geosciences listened to his words, and after research agreed with them.

Photo: L. Xing / China University of Geosciences

Once you know what it is, these marks become hard to miss. There are no dinosaur skeletal remains in this region, so this find provides invaluable information about which dinosaurs lived in the area.

Lida Xin

Associate Professor at China University of Geosciences

After in-depth analysis, scientists suggested that these prints were left by sauropods - "lizard-footed" herbivorous dinosaurs. The growth of the inherited individuals was about 10 meters. But despite such impressive size, they took rather short steps, and their walking speed was only about two kilometers per hour, the experts found out.

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A 10-meter sauropod compared to a human. Image: Anthony Romilio / University of Queensland's

The researchers also calculated that the footprints were from the Early (Lower) Cretaceous period. That is, they are over 100 million years old.