Huge fossilised footprint of dinosaur found in China belongs to a megaraptor

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Not much is known about Fujianipus, as Persons and his colleagues are still working on the parts of its skeleton. The teams just discovered a handful of its 36-centimetre-long footprints. The team is sure the footprints belong to a raptor because each one carries the imprint of just two toes. 

A team of palaeontologists believe they have found a set of fossilized footprints of one of the largest raptors in China. The set of five fossilised footprints of dinosaur species is as big as half of the length of a school bus. 

The footprints were discovered at a dinosaur trackway in south-eastern China, which was discovered in 2020. As per scientists, dinosaurs of all sorts used to walk over the muddy river during the Cretaceous period, which left muddy footprints in the area. Some footprints are even preserved for tens of millions of years.

The dino trackway was discovered in Longxiang, which is roughly the size of a hockey rink. A few of the footprints are oddly shaped, with preserved imprints featuring only two toes.

Fossilised footprint of megaraptor found in China

Raptors or predatory birds are usually small in size, and typically called deinonychosaurs. For example, a Velociraptor is roughly the size of a turkey. Few raptors like the Utahraptor and Dakotaraptor grew in size substantially, reaching lengths of 5 to 6 metres. The largest-ever raptor known till now was the Triassic ichthyosaur.

The predator probably would have attacked its prey using a pair of enormous "killing claws", one on each foot, finds study. 

What scientists discovered recently in China is huge and much larger than the largest ever superpredator known earlier.

Scott Persons at the College of Charleston in South Carolina and his colleagues added another giant raptor to the list. They named it Fujianipus, and they say it lived in East Asia about 96 million years ago.

Not much is known about Fujianipus, as Persons and his colleagues are still working on the parts of its skeleton. The teams just discovered a handful of its 36-centimetre-long footprints. 

"Preservation conditions were right for footprints but not so great for bones," says Persons. But they are sure the footprints belong to a raptor because each one carries the imprint of just two toes, which matches the foot anatomy of the raptors. Raptors are usually known to have three toes but hold one off the ground to protect the large claw at its tip from wear and tear.

Persons say Fujianipus shows that raptors had the potential to grow even larger and compete against the biggest predatory dinosaurs on the landscape at that time - the allosauroids, some of which measured 10 metres or more in length. 

However, the raptors have had the advantage of speed over these allosauroids, said Persons. But without fossilised leg bones, the researchers cannot accurately estimate Fujianipus's speed.

(With inputs from agencies)

Riya Teotia

Riya is a sub-editor at WION and a passionate storyteller who creates impactful and detailed stories through her articles. She likes to write on defence tech