Tracks of a Dromaeosaurus and a very rare sauropod dinosaur were discovered in Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Photo: Fengmian News

 

A 10-year-old boy accidentally discovered some footprints on a stone riverbed while playing by the river in the city of Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Dinosaur experts later confirmed the footprint fossils included tracks of an adult and baby Dromaeosaurus, as well as a very special sauropod dinosaur, saying such a combination is very rare.

The dinosaur footprints found by the boy were on a red sandstone which was exposed after recent heavy rain in Luzhou. The footprint sizes range from 10 centimeters to 40 centimeters, according to experts from the China University of Geosciences Beijing (CUGB), Zigong Dinosaur Museum and Zhejiang Pangu Fossil Museum. They belonged to three different sizes of Dromaeosaurus, the experts said after carrying out on-site investigation on Saturday and Sunday.

The most important discovery is that the packed track fossils included different sizes of Dromaeosaurus and a very unique sauropod dinosaur, which appears as stone flower-shaped imprints. This is rare not only in China but also around the world, said Xing Lida, deputy professor from CUGB.

Xing said that the combination of two types of traces will provide important clues for understanding the ancient environment, paleoecology, and animal composition during the dinosaur era in this area. "As it is currently the rainy season which is not favorable for exploration, we will conduct more detailed investigations in the future," said Xing.

According to Xing, Luzhou has an abundance of dinosaur footprints from the Cretaceous period in the Sichuan Basin. Xing has been conducting investigations in Luzhou since 2014 and has discovered thousands of dinosaur footprints distributed in more than a dozen different fossil sites.