Paleontologists have uncovered the footprints of two sauropod dinosaurs dating back by about 100 million years at the outdoor courtyard of a restaurant in southwestern China.
The herbivorous sauropods, marked by their long neck and tail and growing to an enormous size — the length of three school buses — lived during the early Cretaceous period and are the largest land animals to have ever roamed the planet.
At the restaurant in China’s Sichuan province, researchers reportedly found stone pits containing footprints of two sauropods after a diner spotted “special dents” at the place.
Scientists confirmed the yet-to-be peer-reviewed findings using a 3D scanner on Saturday, USA Today reported.
Researchers say the two sauropods likely measured about 8m (26 ft) in body length and lived during a time when “dinosaurs really flourished” in the region.
While paleontologists have unearthed fossils before in the Sichuan province, they say the newly discovered footprints add more pieces to the puzzle of how dinosaurs lived during the Cretaceous period in the region.
This is also not the first time sauropod species have been uncovered in China.
Last year, scientists reported the discovery of two sauropods unearthed from China’s northwest regions in Xinjiang and the Turpan-Hami Basin.
The two giant dinosaur species, described in a study in the journal Scientific Reports in August, were named Silutitan sinensis – “silu” meaning “Silk Road” in Mandarin – and Hamititan xinjiangensis, a nod to the region where it was found.
These species, researchers said, were likely over 17m to 20m long, compared to modern-day blue whales which grow to lengths of 23-30 metres.
The giant dinosaur fossils were uncovered in places where they were not thought to be common, increasing the sauropod diversity of Asia, scientists said.
“These dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods,” scientists wrote in the study.
