[Animals] Footprints of swimming dinosaurs discovered in La Rioja

[[M]anuel]

The discovery is made up of 27 traces of predators from 120 million years ago capable of crossing large volumes of water

 

 

La Rioja is the least po[CENSORED]ted community (323,465 inhabitants, according to the INE) and the second smallest, but it has a vast paleontological heritage, which extends across 170 sites, where there are nearly 11,000 dinosaur footprints, in addition to different sediments. bone

The latest discovery has to do with the fossil remains belonging to species of dinosaurs that knew how to swim or, at least, were capable of swimming large volumes of water. A discovery that bears the signature of the researcher from the University of La Rioja, Pablo Navarro, who has identified 27 footprints (ichnites) of this class of dinosaurs, bipeds, non-avians (grandparents of birds) and tridactyls (three-toed), who lived in La Rioja more than 120 million years ago during the Lower Cretaceous.

 

They are ichnites with special morphologies, since they belong to dinosaurs that were swimming and not walking, which is the most common behavior in the footprints that can be seen in La Rioja or in other parts of the planet," Navarro points out about this discovery in Laguna de Cameros. Footprints with a variable length (from 8.5 to 29.2 centimeters) and whose dimensions also change depending on the posture and movements of the animal when touching the aquatic bottom. At the site, “larger and smaller” marks have been found, which could correspond to different species or to adult and young dinosaurs of the same species,” he details.

 

The researcher attributes the footprints to spinosaurids (bipedal predators) that were trying to overcome the flow of water. According to Navarro, dinosaurs “could use different techniques to swim.” The study of the ichnites suggests that “the animal's body was partially or totally floating.” For this reason, the footprints are elongated in the first case; while, in the second, they show more clearly the tips of the fingers that they used to balance their march and continue moving forward.

 

Descubiertas en La Rioja huellas de dinosaurios nadadores | Ciencia | EL PAÍS (elpais.com)