100M year old dinosaur tracks reported in the journal Chinese Science Bulletin suggest that some dinosaurs were strong swimmers.
Carnivorous two-legged dinosaur swimming in a river, making claw marks as it touches bottom with its tiptoes (Nathan E. Rogers)
“Humans have been around for about 200,000 years. Dinosaurs ruled for Earth for 160 million years,” said study co-author Scott Persons, a paleontologist with the University of Alberta.
“From dinosaurs we’ve learned about color vision in some of today’s animals, and the ancient animals are linked to the evolution of other life we take for granted, like birds and flowering plants.”
The research has produced some of the strongest evidence ever found that dinosaurs could paddle long distances.
Persons and his colleagues arrived at that conclusion after examining unusual claw marks on fossilized rocks found in China.
They determined that a series of claw marks found in now well-known dinosaur tracks were left by the tips of a two-legged dinosaur’s feet.
“The dinosaur’s claw marks show it was swimming along in this river and just its tiptoes were touching bottom,” Persons said.
The claw marks cover a distance of 50 feet (15 m), which the researchers believe is evidence of a dinosaur’s ability to swim with coordinated leg movements.
According to the study, the tracks were made by a carnivorous, two-legged dinosaur.
The team will continue to analyze the dinosaurs’ swimming prowess with hopes that it will yield evidence related to today’s animals.
