Scientists in Australia recently got a chance to walk in the footsteps of dinosaurs. In March, they announced that they’d identified thousands of dinosaur tracks along a15-mile stretch of Australia’s northwest coast. One ofthe footprints is the largest dinosaur footprint ever recorded.
The footprint is about 5 feet 9 inches long (around 180cm) —large enough for most people to lie inside it. The print was likely left behind about 130 million years ago by a type of dinosaur called asauropod. These long-necked herbivores(animals that only eat plants) were the largest known dinosaurs, with the biggest ones measuring about 130 feet long (around 40m).
That giant footprint wasn’t the only amazing discovery in the area. In total, the scientists identified the footprints of 21 different dinosaur species. That includes the first evidence of a stegosaur—a type of dinosaur with spiky plates along its back—in Australia. It’s the most diverse group of dinosaur prints ever found in one place. “It really is a snapshot of life during the age of the dinosaurs in this particular area,”says Steve Salisbury. He is a paleontologist (a scientist who studies fossils) at the University of Queensland in Australia.
The dinosaurs originally left theirfootprints in sand. Over time, these prints were filled with other types ofsand and small pebbles. The tracks eventually fossilized, or hardened into rock. To figure out which types of dinosaurs had left them, scientists studied the size of the footprints and the patterns in which thepatterns they were made.
The scientists worked with a group of Aborigines (ab-uhr-IHJ-ih-neez), or Australian natives. The Aborigines had known about the tracks for years, but they didn’t sharetheir secret with the paleontologists until 2008. The scientists and the Aborigines created a digital map of the area and made molds of some of thetracks. These can later be used to make replicas(exactcopies) of the footprints for museums.
Officials plan to open parts of the area to the public to give visitors a chance to walk among the dinosaur prints too.“With tracks, you really feel like you’re seeing where one of these fantastic animals actually was millions of years ago,”says Salisbury.
*The above information & picture is from Time for Kids. Written by Joe Bubar
最近，澳大利亚的科学家们有了在恐龙脚印上一走为快的机会。今年3月，他们宣称在澳大利亚西北海岸发现了大量的恐龙遗迹，并长达15英里。其中有一个脚印超越了记录，是目前发现的最大的恐龙脚印。
该脚印大约有5尺9英寸长（大约180厘米）-这个尺寸足够让大多数人能平躺在里面。这个脚印很可能是1.3亿年前由一种蜥脚类恐龙留下的。这些长脖子的食草动物是已知的最大的恐龙，最大的一些可以长达130英尺（大约40米）。
在这里发现的巨型脚印并不是唯一的惊喜。科学家们在这里发现了多达21种不同类型的恐龙脚印，还包括在澳大利亚第一次发现了剑龙的证据。也是迄今为止在同一个地方发现恐龙脚印种类最多的地方。“这里真实记录了恐龙时代的一瞬间。”斯蒂芬.沙利斯波利表示。他是澳大利亚昆士兰大学的古生物学家。
恐龙是把它们的脚印留在了沙子里，时光流逝，这些脚印就被其它的沙土和小石子填满了。它们就被石化了或在岩石内硬化。要知道什么恐龙留下了这些脚印，科学家们研究了脚印的大小以及路线。
科学家们和一些澳大利亚土著人一起合作。澳大利亚土著人发现这些脚印已经有些年了，但直到2008年他们才将这个秘密告知古生物学家。科学家们和土著人建立了这块地方的电子地图，并为一些脚印建了模。这些已经可以做成脚印的仿品在博物馆里展示。
官方也计划对外开放一部分的区域，让游客也有机会能在恐龙的脚印里走上一回。“这些脚印让你感觉真的回到几百万年以前，看到了那些了不起的恐龙。”沙利斯伯里表示。
*以上信息和图片来源于时代周刊儿童版
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