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guess a dinosaur footprint as long as a young child is tall . Now , imagine 110 of them . surprisingly , that ’s what paleontologists have find in eastern France — 110 fossilized footprints belonging to a long - necked sauropod that lived during the Jurassic catamenia .
At more than 500 foot ( 155 m ) long , the footprint - speckled itinerary is the foresighted sauropod trackway on record book , according to the researcher . This lengthy trackway is a few thou longer than the old record holders : a 465 - foot - tenacious ( 142 1000 ) and a 482 - fundament - long ( 147 MB ) sauropod trackway in Galinha , Portugal , dating to themiddle Jurassic , the researcher said .
An illustration of the Plagne sauropod superimposed on its tracks.
Part of the trackway was uncovered in the French village of Plagne , located in the Jura Mountains , in 2009 . In the years that followed , paleontologists uncovered more of the 150 - million - twelvemonth - old land site , a meadowland covering 7.4 acres ( 3 hectares ) , an area roughly the size of six football game discipline . [ Photos : Dinosaur track Reveal Australia ’s ' Jurassic Park ' ]
The sauropod dinosaur ’s circular foot were big : 37 inches by 40 inches ( 94 by 103 centimeters ) , but the total footprint distance could reach up to 10 metrical unit ( 3 m ) when look at the mud ring that was displaced by each footprint , the investigator articulate .
Based on its foot and handprint sizes , theherbivorous sauropodwas likely 115 foot ( 35 m ) long and weighed up to 40 tons , the researchers enunciate . This would excuse its average stride length of about 9 feet ( 2.8 m ) , they noted .
These newly discovered footprints and handprints make up the longest sauropod trackway on record.
The fossilized prints afford other clues , too . A close examination of the step revealed five oval - shaped toe marks , and the handprints had five spherical finger marks arranged in an arc , the researchers said . The dinosaur in all probability walk at a focal ratio of 2.5 mph ( 4 km / h ) , they added .
free-base on the prints ' characteristics , the researchers gave the Plagne sauropod tag a raw scientific name : Brontopodus plagnensis . This is not the name of thedinosaur species(which remains strange ) , but rather the name of the trace fossil — a fogey made by an animate being , but not contain the animal itself , such as fossilized prints , burrow or ordure .
In addition to the sauropod track , the investigator also uncovered 18 fossilize print that span 125 feet ( 38 m ) . These tracks look to belong to a carnivorous dinosaur , which has lead trace dodo , known asMegalosauripus , elsewhere .
The paleontologists have covered all these dinosaur track to protect them , and speculate that there are more remaining to be uncovered .
" Thousands ofdinosaur racetrack and trackwayshave already been recorded in the late Jurassic in the Jura Mountains , " the researchers write in the discipline . " doubtlessly , raw find and legion excavations will take space in the futurity , making the Jura Mountains the most significant European lot of dinosaur track site . "
The sketch was published in the August 2017 issue of thejournal Geobios .
Original clause onLive Science .
