Sauropod dinosaur footprintPAIGE DEPOLOFootprints found in a lagoon on Scotland’s Isle of Skye may help paleontologists better understand a critical time in dinosaur evolution. Not much is known about the Middle Jurassic—a period between 174 million to 163 million years ago—because fossils from the era are relatively rare. But a recent discovery of 170-million-year-old sauropod and theropod tracks are offering some clues, researchers reported yesterday (April 2) in the Scottish Journal of Geology.
“This tracksite is the second discovery of sauropod footprints on Skye. It was found in rocks that were slightly older than those previously found at Duntulm on the island and demonstrates the presence of sauropods in this part of the world through a longer timescale than previously known,” study coauthor Paige dePolo of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland says in a statement. “This site is a useful building block for us to continue fleshing out a picture of what dinosaurs were like on Skye in the Middle Jurassic.”
In the paper, the team suggests that Breviparopus, a genus of dinosaur inferred by its tracks only, left the sauropod footprints. Breviparopus may have been one of the largest dinosaurs to roam Earth, perhaps larger than ...
