London, Nov 14 (PTI) Scientists have uncovered theworld's longest dinosaur tracks sprawling over more than 150meters, that were left 150 million years ago by a dinosaur atleast 35 metres long and weighing 35 tonnes.
The tracks were discovered in the French village ofPlagne in 2009, and were identified as the world's largestdinosaur tracks.
Scientists from The National Center for ScientificResearch (CNRS) and the Pterosaur Beach Museum supervised digsat the site, a meadow covering three hectares.
Their work unearthed many more dinosaur footprints andtrackways. It turns out the prints found in 2009 are part of a110-step trackway that extends over 155 metres - a worldrecord for sauropods, which were the largest of the dinosaurs.
Dating of the limestone layers reveals that the trackwaywas formed 150 million years ago, during the Early TithonianAge of the Jurassic Period.
At that time, the Plagne site lay on a vast carbonateplatform bathed in a warm, shallow sea. The presence of largedinosaurs indicates the region must have been studded withmany islands that offered enough vegetation to sustain theanimals.
Land bridges emerged when the sea level lowered,connecting the islands and allowing the giant vertebrates tomigrate from dry land in the Rhenish Massif.
Additional excavations conducted as late as 2015 enabledcloser study of the tracks.
Those left by the sauropod's feet span 94 to 103centimetre and the total length can reach up to three metreswhen including the mud ring displaced by each step.
The footprints reveal five elliptical toe marks, whilethe handprints are characterized by five circular finger marksarranged in an arc.
Biometric analyses suggest the dinosaur was at least 35metres long, weighted between 35 and 40 tonnes, had an averagestride of 2.80 metres, and travelled at a speed of fourkilometres per hour.
It has been assigned to a new ichnospecies Brontopodusplagnensis.
Other dinosaur trackways can be found at the Plagne site,including a series of 18 tracks extending over 38 metres, leftby a carnivore of the ichnogenus Megalosauripus.
The researchers have since covered these tracks toprotect them from the elements. However, many more remain tobe found and studied in Plagne, they said. PTI MHN SARMHN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.