Scientists have confirmed that fossilized footprints found in Hami, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, were left by meat-eating dinosaurs that lived on Earth more than 120 million years ago.
According to Xinhua, the dinosaur track is located in the Turpan-Hami basin.
A research team led by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered a total of nine small footprints at the site since 2006.
Considering the length of the footprints, the scientists estimated that the dinosaurs had a hip height of approximately 65 cm, a body length of 171 cm and a weight of 30 kg, indicating that the tracks were made by small theropods.
After studying the invertebrate tracks, sedimentary structures and rock layers at the site, they concluded that the footprints were likely left along the shore of a shallow lake.
The results of the study were recently published online in the international journal Historical Biology.
For the first time, the team discovered abundant and diverse vertebrate footprints at Hami, including theropod tracks and tracks left by sauropods, birds and pterosaurs, the study said.
Fossilized footprints can reveal information about environmental habits that fossilized skeletons cannot, said Wang Xiaolin, the study's lead researcher.
"In addition to type, hip height, body length and weight, fossilized footprints can also offer clues about other characteristics of those animals, such as speed of movement, predatory behavior and the environment in which they were preserved," Wang said.
The scientist said these findings provide direct evidence of the presence of theropod dinosaurs in the Hami pterosaur fauna.
"This area has the richest collection of pterosaur fossils in the world. Hundreds of millions of pterosaurs once lived here, making it a pterosaur paradise," he added.
A Dinosaur Museum is also being built near the footprint site to help protect these important fossils and "as a window into the mysterious flying reptiles that once lived on Earth," Wang said.
Bonus video:
