Find Dino-Mite! The adorable baby dinosaur footprint discovered in China is only 6 cm long and is the smallest stegosaur footprint ever found.
- The fingerprint was found in Xinjiang province in northwest China by experts
- It measures only 5.7 cm in length and is believed to belong to a stegosaurus
- Expect that the animal that did it was a stegosaurus child with family members
A small footprint belonging to a baby dinosaur was discovered in China.
The imprint is only 5.7 cm long, and the exact species that made it remains unknown, but it is believed to be a diminutive stegosaurus.
The most famous stegosaurus is Stegosaurus, a plant-eating giant, 21 feet long, known for its protruding plates and mace-like tail.
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A fingerprint found in China is believed to belong to a stegosaurus child, experts believe it would be armored and have a pointed tail, just like huge adults (pictured, artist’s impression)
In the image on the right, the tiny stegozaur imprint found in China. It is shorter than the 12-inch (30cm) footprints of much larger adult stegosaurs found at the site (left), indicating that young stegosaurs may have walked on their toes, such as birds and cats.
Dr. Anthony Romilla, co-author of the study at the University of Queensland, said: “This imprint was made by an armored herbivorous dinosaur, generally known as the stegosaurus – the family of dinosaurs that includes the famous stegosaurus.
“Like the stegosaurus, this little dinosaur probably had tail tips and bone plates along its back as an adult.”
Researchers who found the imprint in the Lower Cretaceous Tugulu Group in Xinjiang Province, China, say the imprint was found near much larger versions.
The international team of paleontologists says that this indicates that the dinosaur was probably surrounded by older, fully grown family members.
Writing in their scientific paper, published in the journal Palaios, experts say they believe the track was made by a dinosaur known as the ichnogenus Deltapodus.
They say the other nearby traces are about six times larger, and the baby footprint is “the smallest convincing example of a Deltapodus known today.”
Finding a stegosaurus footprint smaller than about 12 cm is very rare, the smallest discovered so far having a length of 8 cm.
The imprint has three short, wide and round impressions on the foot, which researchers believe is evidence that it belongs to a stegosaurus.
In the image, the analysis of the small fingerprint (left) reveals the three small, rounded fingers of the stegosaurs
They also say that its shape shows that the young stegosaurs had a different gait than the much taller adults.
The footprints of the adults are elongated, which means that the huge dinosaurs walked on their heels on the ground, just like humans.
But the baby stegosaurus lifted his heel, indicating that he was walking on his toes, like a cat or a bird, with the sole of his foot not touching the floor.
“The stegosaurus could have passed to the heel as it got older,” said Dr. Lida Xing, a paleontologist at the Chinese University of Geosciences in Beijing, who found the print.
“A complete set of pieces of these small fingerprints would give us the answer to this question, but unfortunately we only have one fingerprint.”