Scientists are baffled as they discover mysterious bird-like footprints in Africa. | Credits: (Abrahams et al., PLOS ONE, 2023).
(ScienceAlert) — Researchers have been taking a closer look at some bird-like footprint fossils in Africa, stretching back some 210 million years.
These footprints are something of a mystery: fossils for even the earliest bird ancestors don’t show up for another 60 million years.
These footprints have been known about for many years, but here a team from the University of Cape Town in South Africa wanted to do a more comprehensive analysis on the fossils, which are actually taken from four separate sites in the region.
Looking in particular at the records found at the Maphutseng site, an 80-meter (262-foot) stretch of tracks, the researchers were able to identify two separate kinds (or morphotypes) of footprint, under the Trisauropodiscus category – that’s the name previously assigned to these bird-like, three-toed footprints.
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Jason Jeth Newshub 