The discovery brings news about the terrestrial path of dinosaurs.

Almost identical dinosaur footprints have been found on two different continents, something that happened 120 million years ago, indicating how these animals were among the last to complete the journey, as the time matches the time when the supercontinent Gondwana split from Pangaea.

The 260 footprints were discovered in Brazil and Cameroon. They left behind evidence Technology The layout of the Earth in the Early Cretaceous was completely different. Back then, South America and Africa were so close together that land-dwelling dinosaurs could roam freely between them. Today, that journey involves swimming 6,000 kilometers in deep water.

“One of the earliest and closest geological connections between Africa and South America was the northeastern elbow of Brazil, which lies off the coast of what is now Cameroon along the Gulf of Guinea,” said paleontologist Louis Jacobs of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, USA. a permit“The two continents were connected along this narrow stretch, so animals on either side of this connection likely moved across it.”

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When did the dinosaurs’ path change between Africa and South America?

• This began to change 140 million years ago, when the tectonic plates on which Africa and South America lie began to pull apart;
• The seismic shift tore the Earth’s crust apart along its weak points and created magma-filled ruptures, forming a new oceanic ridge, which we now know as the South Atlantic Ocean;
• The distinctive features of tectonic plate division can be seen in the semi-separate basins on the two continents that contain sediments from ancient rivers and lakes;
• There are also traces of fossilized pollen grains from 120 million years ago, in addition to dinosaur footprints.

Crawling dinosaurs belong to several types, such as theropods, sauropods, and ornithischians. The evidence they left behind has many similarities when it comes to shape, age, and geological context, helping scientists understand the story that began 140 million years ago.

“In this study, we traced dinosaur footprints back to when they were imprinted in mud along rivers and lakes, more than 120 million years ago, at originally adjacent sites on the same landmass, but about 1,000 kilometers apart. The researchers concluded that these fossil preservation sites are now located on two continents separated by 6,000 kilometers and an ocean.

The study was published by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (USA).