Tiny dinosaur tracks in northwest China could help to trace evolution of birds
- Chinese scientists say they have found evidence that chicken-sized dinosaurs lived in what is now Gansu province
The five three-toed fossil footprints found in Gansu province measure between only 1cm (0.39 inches) and 3cm (1.18 inches) across. They are believed to belong to one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered – a tiny genus of bipedal terrestrial dinosaurs called Minisauripus.
“We estimate that the body length [of the dinosaurs] is about 25cm (9.84 inches), but the tail should account for at least half of the length,” said Xing Lida, a palaeontologist and associate professor at the China University of Geosciences.
In comparison, house sparrows typically have a body length of about 17cm (6.69 inches), a pigeon measures around 35cm (13.8 inches) from head to tail, and a domestic chicken typically measures between 40 and 60cm (15.7-23.6 inches) long.
Similar footprints dating to the early Cretaceous period – which lasted from 145.5 to 100.5 million years ago – were first discovered in the Sichuan Basin in southwest China, and have also been found in the eastern province of Shandong as well as in South Korea.
The discovery of the latest tracks – found in the recently declared Linxia Unesco global geopark – expands the known habitat of the Minisauripus into one of the most abundant regions for fossils in China.
The footprints were found in August last year by employees from a dinosaur museum within the park, after continuous rainfall exposed the tiny marks on the weathered rock surface.
