A restaurant in southwest China has become a natural history site after a restaurant saw dinosaur footprints in the establishment’s courtyard last week.
Located in Leshan, Sichuan Province, the restaurant officially houses footprints of two sauropods that lived during the early Cretaceous period more than 100 million years ago, a team from China University of Geosciences confirmed.
Sauropods first evolved in the early Jurassic period, about 201 million to 174 million years ago, and continued until the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million to 66 million years ago.
These herbivorous dinosaurs had small heads, long necks, and long tails and were probably the largest land animals of all time.
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Paleontologist Lida Xing, whose team confirmed the discovery, said the two sauropods, specifically brontosaurs, were probably about 8 meters (approximately 26.25 feet) long. His team used a 3D scanner to do the analysis.
Ou Hongtao, the diner who spotted the “special bonnets” on July 10, is interested in paleontology and contacted Xing immediately.
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Xing told CNN that the Cretaceous period was when “dinosaurs really bloomed.” He said the fossils found in Sichuan are usually from the Jurassic period, not the Cretaceous.
The location of the restaurant previously served as a chicken farm. The dirt that covered the footprints was removed just a year ago due to the opening of the restaurant. For this reason, the footprints are considered well preserved.
“When we went there, we found that the footprints were very deep and quite obvious, but no one had thought about it. [the possibility]”Xing told CNN.
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Since then, the site has been surrounded by fences and the restaurant owner could build a shed for added protection.
The story goes on
Featured image through China News Service
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