Across opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean more than 3,700 miles apart, researchers have uncovered footprints left by dinosaurs that could have roamed from Africa to South America when the continents were joined in a supercontinent.
The more than 260 footprints, located in Brazil and in Cameroon, are believed to be part of the Early Cretaceous period, according to a study published Monday by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
The tracks were originally created about 621 miles apart over a thin sandstone layer of silt and mud on the former supercontinent Gondwanan, which later separated and formed the south Atlantic Ocean.
The study shared photos of the footprints with identical shapes that appeared to be from similiar age and geological contexts, Southern Methodist University paleontologist and lead study author Louis L. Jacobs found.
“One of the youngest and narrowest geological connections between Africa and South America was the elbow of northeastern Brazil nestled against what is now the coast of Cameroon along the Gulf of Guinea,” Jacobs said in an SMU news release. “The two continents were continuous along that narrow stretch, so that animals on either side of that connection could potentially move across it.”
Footprints left by three-toed theropods
The study found that the majority of the fossil footprints were formed by theropod dinosaurs, which were characterized by their three toes and hollow bones. A few other fossils were likely created by sauropods or ornithischians.
Paleontologists calculated the hip height, speed range and body mass for each footprint type to reach its conclusion that species were the same, according to the study.
The location of the footprints, found in the Brazil’s Borborema region and Cameroon’s Koum Basin, allowed researchers to pinpoint where rifts formed in Earth’s crust as tectonic plates shifted, the study reported.
Alongside the footprints, researchers also found half-graben basins, the geologic structures that formed when the Earth’s crust pulls apart. River and lake sediments were found within the basins containing fossil pollen that are presumably 120 million years old.
What is Gondwana?
Gondwana is a former supercontinent that broke off from the landmass of Pangea about 180 million years ago. It included South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
About 140 million years ago, Africa and South America began to separate, causing rifts to emerge along pre-existing weaknesses and the south Atlantic Ocean fill the space between the two newly formed continents.
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