A team of international researchers recently made a thrilling discovery when they found hundreds of matching dinosaur footprints on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
A team of researches, led by Southern Methodist University (SMU) paleontologist Louis L. Jacobsfound over 260 matching sets of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints in Brazil and Cameroon, according to a new study published by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
The footprints show where the dinosaurs were last able to cross between South America and Africa millions of years ago before the two continents split, according to a press release from SMU.
“In terms of their shapes, they are almost identical,” said Jacobs.
Researchers found that the dinosaur footprints were discovered over 3,700 miles away from each other – and that the footprints were made 120 million years ago on a “supercontinent known as Gondwana,” which broke off from Pangea.
Per USA Today, Gondwana, a former supercontinent, broke off from the landmass of Pangea about 180 million years ago and included multiple other continents including South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
Before Africa and South America split apart, “Plants fed the herbivores and supported a food chain. Muddy sediments left by the rivers and lakes contain dinosaur footprints,” Jacobs said in the press release.
This showed proof that “these river valleys could provide specific avenues for life to travel across the continents 120 million years ago,” he added.
SMU research associate and co-author of the study Diana P. Vineyard, said that the majority of the footprints were created by three-toed theropod dinosaurs, with a few also likely coming from sauropods or ornithischians.
