The largest footprint of carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered – SciencePost

In Bolivia, paleontologists announced the discovery of a huge dinosaur footprint, the largest ever found.

Located five kilometers from the city of Sucre, in the career of Carl Orko, Bolivia, an impressive limestone wall of about 1.5 km long and 100 m high home to thousands of ancient dinosaur footprints over 68 million years. More than 460 dinosaur tracks are listed, at least eight different species, for an amazing total of 5055 separate prints. This exceptional site is full of impressions, but it still has traces to reveal to us.

In testimony this giant step, unearthed by a guide who was walking on the crater Maragua, a little more than fifty kilometers from the city of Sucre. 1.20m long, this brand would be that of a “Abelisaurus,” a two-legged carnivorous dinosaur that lived on Earth during the Late Cretaceous, on the side of South America, there are 80 million years. Common specimens were measured, on average, within 9 meters. But it could be even greater, with an estimated size to more than 12 meters

“This is the largest footprint of carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered in the world. Normally these types of footprints are between 85 and 100 centimeters, “said Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia to CNN.

We do not know to this day not much of the animal as the remains are scarce. This fingerprint is added to single fossil skull that is known, which measures about 85 centimeters long. However, we know that Abelisaurus was a bipedal carnivore with hard edges on the top of the skull, but without a well-defined peak as in other family members.

Jorge Antonio Gonzalez

AFP