An ancient story was uncovered recently—one that stretched across continents and spanned millions of years, from Brazil to Cameroon.
It was in these unlikely locations that researchers stumbled upon more than 260 similar dinosaur footprints.
The footprints, according to a study published by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, hint that 120 million years ago Africa and South America were not the distant lands they are today but connected pieces of a vast supercontinent known as Gondwana.
Dr. Louis L. Jacobs, a seasoned paleontologist from Southern Methodist University in Texas, led the study and marveled at the similarities between the footprints found on these two distant continents. “The geology started looking very similar,” Jacobs explained. “Even the structures that showed how the continents broke apart were continuous right across from Brazil into Cameroon.”
The Borborema Plateau in northeastern Brazil and the Koum Basin in northern Cameroon, it turned out, shared more than just a distant geographical link. Both regions had preserved dinosaur prints in similar geological structures, showing a time when dinosaurs may have roamed freely across what would one day become separate continents.
These tracks, mostly created by three-toed theropod carnivores—bipedal predators—along with some left by long-necked sauropods and herbivorous ornithischians, revealed more than just the presence of these ancient creatures. They provided a glimpse into the world as it was before Gondwana split apart, offering clues about the climatic and environmental conditions of that era. “The paper shows a ‘specific place at a specific time with specific climatic conditions and environmental conditions’ that can help demonstrate how animals may have moved across the stretch of land between Cameroon and Brazil before Gondwana broke apart,” Jacobs noted.
Jacobs’ journey to uncover this began decades earlier in Cameroon, where he first discovered dinosaur bones, fossilized mammal remains, and footprints in the late 1980s.
His recent revisitation of these findings, sparked by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science’s interest in publishing a volume dedicated to the late paleontologist Martin Lockley, led to the realization that these tracks held more than just paleontological significance—they were pieces of a larger puzzle, a story that linked continents and epochs.
To piece together this narrative, Jacobs and his international team delved into the rocks where the footprints had been preserved, determined their age, and compared them to similar records in Brazil. They also examined a paleogeographic model of Earth, studying the topography, river valleys, and climate of 120 million years ago. The sediments even contained fossil pollen, further confirming the age of the tracks.
“Dinosaur tracks tell you things bones won’t,” Jacobs reflected. “It shows how they moved, where they moved, whether they moved alone or with others. It’s a different way of looking at the past because there is different information contained in the footprints.”
(With inputs from NYT)
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 20:34:00
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