Paleontologists Uncover First Known Tracks From Club-Tailed Armored Dinosaur

Ankylosaurs, a radical of dinosaurs often compared to Pokémon, were built similar walking tanks, with bony armor plating their backs and sides. They lived during the Late Jurassic (164 to 145 cardinal years ago) and Cretaceous (145 to 66 cardinal years ago) periods, and consisted of 2 main subgroups: the nodosaurids, which lacked process clubs and typically had 4 toes connected some hands and feet; and the ankylosaurids, which had distinctive clubbed tails and usually 3 toes connected their hind feet. While paleontologists person unearthed four-toed ankylosaur footprints passim North America, three-toed ones person remained elusive—until now.

An planetary squad of researchers has identified the archetypal ankylosaurid footprints known to science. The 100-million-year-old fossilized footprints, discovered successful Canada’s Peace Region (spanning the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta), correspond a caller ankylosaurid species, which the squad named Ruopodosaurus clava. The find besides fills successful a notorious spread successful North America’s fossil records from the mediate of the Cretaceous period.

“While we don’t cognize precisely what the dinosaur that made Ruopodosaurus footprints looked like, we cognize that it would person been astir 5-6 metres agelong [16 to implicit 19 feet long], spiky and armoured, and with a stiff process oregon a afloat process club,” Victoria Arbour, the curator of paleontology astatine the Royal BC (British Columbia) Museum, said successful a Taylor & Francis Group statement. Arbour and her colleagues’ enactment is elaborate successful a study published contiguous successful the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, which is published by Taylor & Francis Group.

Ruopodosaurus manus and footprints. © Credit V. Arbour/C. Helm.

Ruopodosaurus clava means “the tumbled-down lizard with a club/mace,” according to the statement, honoring some the upland terrain that preserved the footprints and the dinosaur’s sledgehammer-like process club.

The researchers dated the footprints to the mediate of the Cretaceous period, sometime betwixt 100 and 94 cardinal years ago. This makes the footprints doubly exceptional—prior to their discovery, immoderate scholars had suggested that ankylosaurids did not beryllium successful North America during that clip range, fixed the deficiency of fossil evidence. The recently discovered tracks capable successful this spread successful North America’s fossil record, and besides show that nodosaurids and ankylosaurids shared this portion millions of years ago.

The probe began erstwhile Charles Helm, a co-author of the survey and a technological advisor astatine Tumbler Ridge Museum, documented three-toed tracks astir Tumbler Ridge, a municipality successful the foothills of British Columbia’s Canadian Rockies, which is besides successful the Peace Region.

“Ever since 2 young boys discovered an ankylosaur trackway adjacent to Tumbler Ridge successful the twelvemonth 2000, ankylosaurs and Tumbler Ridge person been synonymous. It is truly breathtaking to present cognize done this probe that determination are 2 types of ankylosaurs that called this portion home, and that Ruopodosaurus has lone been identified successful this portion of Canada,” said Helm.

“This survey besides highlights however important the Peace Region of northeastern BC is for knowing the improvement of dinosaurs successful North America—there’s inactive tons much to beryllium discovered,” Arbour added.

By pursuing successful the footsteps of dinosaurs that walked the Earth tens of millions of years ago, the squad secured a first-of-its-kind discovery, arsenic good arsenic 1 much portion of the ankylosaur fossil grounds puzzle.