It was recently learned that a team including Japan’s Okayama University of Science (Kita-ku, Okayama City) investigated the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and discovered more than 1,000 dinosaur footprint fossils. It is reported that 23 consecutive "tracks" of footprints were found, and the length lasted about 30 meters. The team says this is a step forward in identifying the way dinosaurs walked and their posture.
The survey was conducted in the southeastern and central parts of the Gobi Desert in June by a survey team including Shinobu Ishigaki, director of the Dinosaurology Museum of Okayama University of Science ( Paleontology ), together with a research institute in Mongolia. Ishigaki said that the footprints and tracks found may belong to the end of the Cretaceous period about 90 million to 70 million years ago, and are speculated to be left by the herbivorous dinosaur "Titanosaurus" that was about 6 to 25 meters long. .
It is thought that the footprints of the front feet are easily trampled by the hind feet and therefore difficult to leave behind. However, this time we also found many tracks of both the front feet and the hind feet.
Ishigaki said: "It is rare to find forefoot tracks, and this is the first time in Mongolia." He said: "Judging from the bones (of Titanosaurus ), it seems that it walked like a bow-legged person, but some of the footprints are not like this. It’s exciting to see what living dinosaurs looked like.”
