World's largest dinosaur prints found in France
Amateur French fossil hunters have unearthed the largest dinosaur footprints in the world, belonging to a cousin of the diplodocus, it was announced on Tuesday.
The "colossal" prints, left by giant sauropods weighing up to 50 tons, were found in the tiny French village of Plagne in the Jura plateau, near the southeastern city of Lyon.
The trail of craters the giant herbivores left stretches for hundreds of yards. They were found in April this year but only recently authenticated by palaeontologists, the National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS, announced on Tuesday.
The footprints entail circular depressions in chalky sediment that has been dated to the Upper Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, when the area was covered by a warm, shallow sea.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The "colossal" prints, left by giant sauropods weighing up to 50 tons, were found in the tiny French village of Plagne in the Jura plateau, near the southeastern city of Lyon.
The trail of craters the giant herbivores left stretches for hundreds of yards. They were found in April this year but only recently authenticated by palaeontologists, the National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS, announced on Tuesday.
The footprints entail circular depressions in chalky sediment that has been dated to the Upper Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, when the area was covered by a warm, shallow sea.