Ancient animals were walking on bird-like legs more than 210 million years ago, according to a study published on November 29, 2023 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Miengah Abrahams and Emese M. Bordy of the University of Cape Town, South Africa .
Numerous fossil sites in southern Africa preserve characteristic three-toed footprints that have been named Trisauropodiscus. For many years, researchers have debated which animals could have left these tracks, as well as exactly how many different species (technically called ichnospecies) of Trisauropodiscus exist.
In this study, the researchers re-evaluated the fossil record of these footprints by examining physical trace fossils along with published material documenting Trisauropodiscus at four sites in Lesotho dating to the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods. The authors also provided a detailed in-situ description of footprints from an 80-meter track in Mapucheng. They identified two distinct morphologies among Trisauropodiscus footprints, the first of which is similar to some non-avian dinosaur tracks, and the second of which is very similar in size and proportions to bird tracks.
These tracks do not directly match any fossil animal known from this area and time period. The oldest of these tracks, more than 210 million years old, are 60 million years older than the oldest known fossils of true bird bodies. It’s possible that these tracks were produced by early dinosaurs, and possibly even early members of a near-avian lineage, but the authors note that there could also have been other reptiles, cousins โโof the dinosaurs, that evolved convergent bird-like feet. Whatever the creators, these traces establish the origin of bird-like legs at least as early as the Late Triassic period.
The authors add: “Trisauropodiscus tracks are known from numerous South African sites dating back to about 215 million years ago. The shape of the tracks is consistent with modern and more recent bird track fossils, but it is likely a bird-like dinosaur. leg produced Trisauropodiscus’.
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