"Bigfoot" has the largest dinosaur foot – acquaintances

Munich. The researchers identified the world's largest foot of a dinosaur. An international team of researchers from Munich examined the fossilized foot found in the US state of Wyoming 20 years ago. It is nearly one meter wide and is therefore larger than all previous results, write researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the United States in the newspaper "PeerJ".

Researchers clbadified "Bigfoot" as close relatives to brachiosaurus. With their long necks and tails, these dinosaurs became famous in the movie "Jurbadic Park" from 1993. They were next to the herbivorous Brontosaurus and the Diplodocus genus for the largest terrestrial animals that have ever lived on this planet. Fewer other dinosaurs, such as Argentinosaurus or Patagotitan, both measured 40 meters in length and weighed between 70 and 90 tons. According to the measurements, "Bigfoot" had a height of four meters at the pool. It could have measured at least ten meters high and weighed between 30 and 40 tons.

Anthony Maltese, lead author of the study, had dug up the foot in 1998. It did not fit a small almost complete Brachiosaurius found in the same place as well as a small Diplodocidus. It was immediately clear that the piece came from an extremely large animal, writes Maltese. As a result, the specimen was nicknamed "Bigfoot" received. Maltese researchers Emanuel Tschopp, Femke Holwerda and David Burnham have now used 3D scanners and other detailed measurements to compare findings with sauropod feet of many species.

They also found that the dinosaurs were from the Brachiosaure group inhabited a vast area of ​​east Utah northwest Wyoming 150 million years ago. "It's surprising," said Swiss paleontologist Tschopp. "Many other sauropods inhabited smaller areas during this period". According to the study, it is also one of the most northerly discoveries of a Brachiosaurus from the Morrison Formation that migrates to the western United States.

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