One small step for ancient dinos, one long plane ride for modern humans

Posted October 4, 2024

Last month scientists announced that they’d identified a close match for dinosaur tracks found in the rocks of northern Cameroon…in Brazil, almost 4000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean! The footprints are about 120 million years old and include tracks from theropods (relatives of Tyrannosaurus), ornithopods (relatives of Hadrosaurus), and sauropods (relatives of Apatosaurus). Both sets of tracks, made when dinosaurs traversed the muddy surfaces near ancient streams and lakes, are preserved in the same sorts of sediments. In fact, the African and South American tracks are so similar that scientists think that they represent two halves of the same path, along which dinosaurs dispersed. How could a walking route that began in Africa ever wind up in South America? A look at Earth’s geologic history provides the answer…and illustrates the nature of scientific theories like evolution.

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