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Footprints of 3 dinosaur species found in Thar desert

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Environment
  • Published
    13th Sep, 2021

In a major discovery, footprints of three species of dinosaurs have been found in the Thar desert in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district.

Context

In a major discovery, footprints of three species of dinosaurs have been found in the Thar desert in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district.

Key-findings of the discovery

  • The footprints were spotted in the deposits of the seashore, which eventually became permanently stone-like figures.
  • They belong to three species of dinosaurs —
    • Eubrontes cf. giganteus
    • Eubrontes glenrosensis
    • Grallator tenuis
  • The giganteus and glenrosensis species have 35 cm footprints.
  • The footprint of the third species was found to be 5.5 cm.
  • The footprints were 200 million years old. 
  • Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that dominated the land for over 140 million years (more than 160 million years in some parts of the world).
  • They evolved diverse shapes and sizes, and were able to survive in a variety of ecosystems.

Features

  • The dinosaur species are considered to be of the theropod type, with the distinguishing features of hollow bones and feet with three digits. 
    • All the three species, belonging to the early Jurassic period (199.6 million to 145.5 million years ago).
  • Eubrontes could have been 12 to 15 metres long and weighed between 500 kg and 700 kg.
  • The height of the Grallator is estimated to have been two metres, as much as a human, with a length of up to three metres.
    • Grallator tenuis footprint, involving a wide angle of digits, very narrow toes, and long claws, had strong similarities to the early Jurassic ichnogenus of Stenonyx. 
    • There could be taxonomic variation between the Grallator tracemakers from North America and the findings in Rajasthan.
  • Eubrontes is the name of the footprints, identified by their shape, and not of the genus or genera that made them.
  • Grallator is an ichnogenus (form taxon based on footprints) which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs.

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