Dinosaur footprints found more than 3,700 miles away, on another continent – Nusantara Post

A team of paleontologists discovered dinosaur footprints on two different continents, separated by thousands of miles of ocean.

The footprints, dating back to the early Cretaceous, were found in Brazil and Cameroon, researchers wrote in a study published Monday by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. The discovery shows places where land dinosaurs could freely cross between South America and Africa before the two continents separated millions of years ago.

Transfer of land

More than 260 footprints studied by researchers were found embedded in mud and mud along ancient rivers and lakes, with a distance of more than 3,700 miles separating the footprints in South America and Africa, according to the study. Paleontologists determined that the footprints were similar in age, shape, and geological context and plate tectonics.

Dinosaurs made tracks 120 million years ago with one a continent called Gondwana, it broke away from the larger landmass of Pangea – which was once the world’s only continent, said Southern Methodist University paleontologist Louis Jacobs.

“One of the youngest and narrowest geological connections between Africa and South America is the northeastern Brazil elbow that is along the coast of Cameroon along the Gulf of Guinea,” said Jacobs, lead author of the study. the two contiguous continents on that narrow strip, so animals on either side of the link could cross it.”

The continents of what are now Africa and South America began to separate about 140 million years ago, researchers say. Eventually the South Atlantic filled the gap.

Basins form when continents separate; rivers flowed and lakes formed in these basins, said Jacobs. The depressions where the footprints were found are found on both sides of the crater.

What do we know about dinosaurs?

Most of the footprints were made by three-toed theropods, a group of carnivorous dinosaurs, the researchers said. There are also traces left by sauropods or ornithischians.

“Plants feed mammals and support the food chain,” Jacobs said. “Dinosaur footprints in the muddy sediments left by rivers and lakes, including those of carnivores, record that these river valleys may have provided unique pathways for life to to cross continents 120 million years ago.”