A group of scientists at Beijing University of Geosciences and Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum announced the discovery of the largest Deinonychosaur dinosaur footprint in the world in Fujian province, eastern China.
Photo: Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum
According to Global Times, Deinonychosaur belongs to a group of carnivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaurs that lived from the late Jurassic to the Cretaceous period. Famous members of this subfamily include Velociraptor and Deinonychus, which appeared in the Jurassic Park films.
A related article titled “Deinonychosaur Tracks in Southeast China Documents Possibility of Giant Theropods” was published in the journal iScience in April.
A group of scientists found a total of 248 sets of well-preserved dinosaur footprints in mudflats in Long Nham district in 2020. Among them, there were 12 footprints of two-toed dinosaurs, which can be clearly divided into two types based on size and morphology.
The smaller footprints, about 11 cm long, were іdeпtіfіed as those of Velociraptorichnus. The larger footprints, about 36 cm long, are from Fujianipus yingliangi. Based on the size of this footprint, scientists estimate Fujianipus was at least 5 meters long with a hip height of more than 1.8 meters, making it one of the world’s largest carnivorous dinosaurs. .
While many Deinonychosaurs were small, the evolution of large Deinonychosaurs was not uncommon.
“The Fujianipus footprint shows another example of the presence of Deinonychosaurs outside the Americas,” said Mr. Niu Kechen, who runs the museum’s operations.
Deinonychosaurs had feathers. They have four claws on each foot. The first claw is small and located away from the main foot. The second toe of the hind foot has large sickle-shaped claws, which are often raised upward during locomotion, leaving two-toed footprints made by the third and fourth toes on the ground.
According to Xing Lida, one of the article’s authors, archaeologists found a total of six footprints, of which five formed paths. The average length of the footprint is about 36.4 cm, width 16.9 cm, far exceeding the length of the Shandong footprint of the same type discovered previously (28.5 cm).
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The research team established a new footprint classification. To рау tribute to the Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum’s oᴜtѕtапdіпɡ contributions to dinosaur research in Fujian, they named this type of footprint Fujianipus yingliangi.