Stunning 132 million-year-old dinosaur tracks are rewriting history

Discovery of 132-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in South Africa challenges assumptions about dinosaur survival after massive lava flows. | Contesto: cronaca

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• Stunning 132 million-year-old dinosaur tracks are rewriting history

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A groundbreaking discovery along South Africa’s Western Cape coast is rewriting the history of dinosaurs in southern Africa. Scientists have uncovered dozens of dinosaur tracks, approximately 132 million years old, in a small rock outcrop near Knysna. These footprints are the youngest ever found in the region, dating from the early Cretaceous period, and they fill a critical gap in the fossil record that had baffled paleontologists for decades. The find is particularly significant because it challenges a long-standing mystery in southern Africa’s fossil history. Around 182 million years ago, massive lava flows, known as the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous province, engulfed vast areas of the region. These eruptions were so extensive that they seemed to wipe out all evidence of dinosaurs, creating a 50-million-year gap in the fossil record. For years, researchers assumed that dinosaurs either vanished from southern Africa or left no trace of their existence during this period. The newly discovered tracks, however, tell a different story. Preserved in a thin layer of rock that survived the volcanic devastation, the footprints indicate that dinosaurs not only persisted in the area but thrived long after the lava flows subsided. The tracks include impressions from both large herbivores and smaller carnivorous dinosaurs, suggesting a diverse ecosystem existed along what was then a coastal plain. According to the research team, the site near Knysna is a rare window into a time when southern Africa’s landscape was recovering from catastrophic volcanic activity. The tracks were likely made in soft mud or sand, which later hardened into rock, preserving the details of the dinosaurs’ movements. The discovery pushes back the known timeline of dinosaur activity in the region by tens of millions of years and provides critical clues about how life rebounded after mass extinction events. The implications extend beyond southern Africa. The findings suggest that other regions thought to be barren of dinosaur fossils due to similar volcanic events may hold undiscovered tracks or remains. The study also raises new questions about how dinosaurs adapted to changing environments,...

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Categoria: cronaca