Fossilised footprints of prehistoric creatures hundreds of millions of years old, including bird, turtle, and dinosaur tracks, have been discovered in northwest China. This is reported by
Xinhua News Agency, a partner of TV BRICS.

The fossils were found in Yongjing county, Gansu Province, in a red sandstone of the Lower Cretaceous period.

The research team found six sites with footprints. Five of them belong to ancient birds, one to turtles, and one to theropods (a group of dinosaurs).

This is the first discovery of turtle footprints in China, indicating their coexistence with birds during that period.

Tortoise tracks of different sizes were found, and some of them overlapped with bird tracks. This suggests that turtle tracks appeared earlier.

The bird tracks are 3 to 4 centimetres long, which is similar to the tracks of Koreanaornis lii, a common bird species from the Cretaceous period in China.

The only section of the footprints that did not have bird tracks was a 16.6 cm long symmetrical three-toed print, which probably belongs to a small ankylopollexian.

The study shows that during the age of dinosaurs, animals adapted to different aquatic habitats depending on their size. The discovery will help scientists study ancient aquatic ecosystems.

Since the late 1990s, more than 2,000 dinosaur footprints have been found in the Yongjing area. The latest findings have attracted a lot of media attention.

Photo: Xinhua News Agency