‘Thunderfoot’ dinosaur left 3ft footprints

THE dinosaur responsible for the world’s largest fossil track has been identified by scientists, eight years after its 3ft footprints were discovered.

In 2009, scientists found a row of giant prints in the tiny French village of La Plagne in the Jura plateau, near Lyon.

The trail of 110 craters stretches for hundreds of yards in the chalky sediment, and dates from the Early Tithonian Age of the Jurassic period, around 150million years ago, when the area was covered by a warm, shallow sea.

After studying the depth of prints and stride length, researchers from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon have concluded they were made by a 35-ton dinosaur which was at least 114ft (35m) long.

The new dinosaur has been named Brontopodus plagenensis, which translates as “Thunderfoot from Plagne”.

Thunderfoot left footprints that were more than 3ft (1m) wide and had five toe marks. It walked in 9ft strides, probably at a speed of 2.4mph.

Other dinosaur tracks are present at the site, including a series of 18 tracks extending over 124ft (38m) left by a Megalosauripus carnivore.

The researchers have since covered these tracks to protect them from the elements, but scientists believe many more are still to be found.

The presence of large dinosaurs indicates the region must once have been studded with many islands that offered enough vegetation to sustain the animals.

Land bridges emerged when the sea level lowered, connecting the islands and allowing the giant vertebrates to migrate between the areas of dry land.

The latest research was published in the journal Geobios.