2023-12-05 14:25:04
In southern Africa, unknown animals left bird-like tracks long before the oldest known representatives of this genus.
At first glance, these little prints look a lot like those of birds. Birds, like we come across almost every day on all continents. Except that these prints are almost 200 million years old, a time when birds did not yet populate the sky, and when no known animal can really claim to be responsible for these traces. Many fossil sites in southern Africa preserve these distinct three-toed footprints called “trisauropodiscus”. A paleontological mystery addressed by a new study carried out by researchers from the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, which attempts to take stock of these mysterious impressions (Plos One, 29 November 2023 ).
In this work, the authors focus on four sites in Lesotho, dating from the Upper Triassic (237 million to 201 million years ago) and the Lower Jurassic (between 201 to 199 million years ago). According to their findings, there are two morphologies…
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