Scientists in Scotland have found dinosaur footprints similar to “Nessie” – RIA Novosti

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© Photo: Jon Hoad

© Photo: Steve Brusatte

MOSCOW, December 2 – RIA Novosti. Paleontologists found on the Scottish Isle of Skye traces of four-legged dinosaurs, has a delicate legs and a long neck, and lived in the marshy and semi-aquatic, which makes it kind of Mesozoic Loch Ness Monster, said in an article published in the Scottish Journal of Geology.

“This is one of the most amazing discoveries concerning dinosaurs that have ever been done in Scotland. In these rocks survived so many tracks, it seems that we have found the stone “dance floor” Disco ancient reptiles. By studying their tracks and following in the footsteps of ancient dinosaurs, you can imagine how they wandered through the lagoons of Scotland 170 million years ago, when there was much warmer, “- said Stephen Brusatt (Steve Brusatte) from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).

Brusatt and his colleagues found traces of some of the earliest sauropods – four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs – studying the deposits early and middle Jurassic, formed on the territory of the future of Scotland, the Isle of Skye, about 170 million years ago.

At that time, as they say, scientists, Europe is a collection of small islands, separated by the waters of shallow seas, lagoons and bays. This has contributed to the flourishing and the explosive growth in the number of species of many dinosaurs, including the ancestors’ business cards “any Jurassic Park – Diplodocus and brontosauruses recently” rehabilitated “in the types of rights.

Group Brusatta able to find traces of a possible ancestor of the large four-legged lizards on the island of Skye. Prints, whose diameter is about 70 centimeters, say that the residents of the future of the island were quite large sauropod, whose length is at least 15 meters, and weight – about 10 tons.

According to the indirect paleoecological indicators They were semi-aquatic lifestyle, eating plants that grow off the coast of the sea and islands in the lagoon, covering the Sky at the time.

© Photo: Chuang Zhao

In itself, the discovery that sauropods carried a lot of time near the water, it was a big surprise for paleontologists – before scientists thought that sauropods were typically “Land” the dinosaurs, but knowledge of their semi-aquatic lifestyle, which adhere to the “fathers” of paleontology Owen Marsh and Edward Cope, considered outdated and erroneous theories.

According to the scientists, these tracks are the first footprints sauropods, found in Scotland, and one of the few mid-Jurassic fossils found in the world, making the discovery of the ancient forerunners of the mythical “Nessie” is even more valuable, concludes Brusatt.