A reconstruction of the life of stegosaurs and the paleo-environment 110 million years ago. Credit: Kamitoge
A single footprint the size of a cat-sized dinosaur about 100 million years ago was discovered in China by an international team of paleontologists.
Dr. Anthony Romilio, a researcher at the University of Queensland, was part of the team that investigated the track, originally found by Associate Professor Lida Xing of China University of Geosciences (Beijing).
“This imprint was made by an armored herbivorous dinosaur, generally known as the stegosaurus – the family of dinosaurs that includes the famous stegosaurus,” said Dr. Romilio.
“Like the stegosaurus, this small dinosaur probably had points on its tail and bone plates along its back as an adult. With a footprint of less than six centimeters, this is the smallest known stegosaurus footprint in the world.
“It’s in stark contrast to other stegosaur footprints found on the Chinese site, which measured up to 30 centimeters, and fingerprints found in places like Broome in Western Australia, where they can reach up to 80 centimeters.”
The smallest stegozaur footprint in the world (less than 6 cm long), Xingjiang, China. Credit: Lida Xing
The tiny fingerprint has similar characteristics to other stegosaurus fingerprints with three short, wide, round fingerprints.
However, the researchers found that the fingerprint was not elongated, as were the fingerprints of larger counterparts found on the runway sites, suggesting that the young stegosaurus behaved differently.
“Stegosaurs usually walked with their heels on the ground, just like humans, but on all fours, which creates long footprints,” said Dr. Romilio.
A stegozaur footprint from the same site (over 30 cm long), Xingjiang, China. Credit: Lida Xing
“The small route shows that this dinosaur moved with its heel raised from the ground, just like a bird or a cat today.
“I’ve only seen shortened tracks like this before when dinosaurs walked on two legs.”
Associate Professor Xing said it was plausible for the young stegosaurs to walk.
“This could be possible, because this is the ancestral condition and posture of most dinosaurs, but the stegosaurus could have passed to the heel as it got older,” said Dr. Xing.
“A complete set of pieces of these small fingerprints would give us the answer to this question, but unfortunately we only have one fingerprint.”
Finding tiny pieces on crowded sites will be a challenge for researchers.
“Fingerprints made by the small armored dinosaur are much rarer than those made by other groups of dinosaurs,” said Associate Professor Xing. “Now that our study has identified nine different dinosaur tracking sites in this locality, we’ll take a closer look to see if we can find more of these small traces.”
The paper is published in Palaios and includes collaborating researchers from China, the USA, Germany and Australia.
Reference: “Stegosaur Track Assemblage From Xinjiang, China, Featuring the Smallest Known Record Stegosaur” by Lida Xing, Martin G. Lockley, W. Scott Persons, IV, Hendrik Klein, Anthony Romilio, Donghao Wang and Miaoyan Wang, March 3, 2021, Palaios.
DOI: 10.2110 / palo.2020.036