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US scientists have discovered what could be the largest footprint of a dinosaur in Wyoming (United States). The mark could have up to 150 million years
This is a photograph of the original excavations of 1998, with brachiosaurus bones buried under the bones of the tail of another animal. A member of the expedition, from the University of Kansas, poses to show the proportion of the discovery in relation to the human body. Photo courtesy of the KUVP Archives
About 150 million years ago, a long-necked giant dinosaur went through what is now American soil and left behind one that scientists consider as the Found under a heap of tail bones, the imprint of is about a meter long and would be from a brachiosaur, an herbivore of the group of sauropods, According to data published in the Journal of Life Sciences and the Environment
It is "an exceptionally large foot, larger than the elements of other known sauropod bones", said Anthony Maltese of the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. Woodland Park, in the state of Colorado, in the western United States.
"I am often asked what is the largest, the longest, or any other dinosaur superlative that ever existed, and in this case, I can now give an answer," he continues. Well, it is the first time that the imprint of the animal is described in detail, the scientists unearthed it in 1998 when they l & # 39; discovered under the tail of a Camarasaurus, another long-necked dinosaur.
During these excavations, reports the portal Science Live paleontologists found "various individuals of different ages and at least three different species.This foot belonged definitively to the individual the most important preserved in this quarry, but unfortunately no other part of the body has been found, "explains Emanuel Tschopp, Department of Paleontology, United States Natural History Museum.
Why then , 20 years later, do the researchers attest that it is the largest footprint ever found? The reason is simple: before there are enough ethnological tools advanced to achieve this study.
Now, thanks to the 3D modeling, they have succeeded .. First, the researchers scanned the 3D footprint and compared it to the footprints. from other sauropods. that the gigantic animal could have measured four meters standing, which places it in the category of "titanosaurs". To get an idea of the size of the animal that left its mark on the Wyoming soil, his femur measured 2.07 meters
although it was not not the biggest dinosaur, according to scientists. "There are incomplete skeletons in Australia and Argentina that seem to come from much larger animals, although these gigantic skeletons have been found without feet," says Tschopp. The Argentinosaurus or Patagotitan for example, has a femur that measures two and a half meters. "The size of the feet may not be related to the total size of the animal," explained the paleontologist.
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