Rare dinosaur footprints have been found on the Scottish island
The area around the small island of Skye in the north of Scotland, is known to have been the home of various dinosaur species. Hundreds of fossilised footprints have been discovered there since 2015.
Now scientists and student-explorers have found further giant dinosaur footprints which are more than 170 million years old and stem from the Middle Jurassic period. These footprints are believed to be the oldest ever discovered in Scotland. Old tracks as these are rare finds and thus an important link in dinosaur evolution.
According to the University of Edinburgh, scientists have found around 50 of these 70 cm/27in big footprints off the northeast coast of Britain. Some of the footprints were as big as a car tyre! These fossilised footprints were found in a muddy lagoon by using a drone to map the area.
"The more we look on the Isle of Skye, the more dinosaur footprints we find." (Steven Brussate, GeoSciences professor at the University of Edinburgh)
The dinosaur tracks are thought to belong to sauropods and theropods, the 'older cousins' of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Sauropods were huge dinosaurs that looked like a mix of an elephant and giraffe with a long neck. These giant dinosaurs were as long as 15 m/49 ft and weighed more than 10 tonnes! Theropods were much smaller, about 2 m/6.5 ft tall, but long-necked as the sauropods.
source: The Guardian
image: Steve Brussate/University of Edinburgh