Being a discipline geologist, I need to admit that I’m not the perfect navigator. Discovering our deliberate space of curiosity and making our approach again to our autos generally is a problem for me, particularly when I’ve to depend on nondescript bushes and distant landscapes as reference factors.

Due to this fact, it was no shock after I unintentionally led my MSc scholar Loyce Mpangala and our Ph.D. candidate discipline assistant Akhil Rampersadh astray in Lesotho’s Roma Valley. After visiting a dinosaur observe web site marked as an attraction on Google Maps, we discovered ourselves on the unsuitable footpath whereas strolling again to our automobile. Little did I do know that our unsuitable flip would lead us to an thrilling discovery.

As we continued alongside the wrong path, I noticed a dinosaur footprint that I had by no means seen earlier than. Having labored on dinosaur tracks for a few years, I had change into acquainted with their form and traits. This specific footprint stood out as completely different from the others I had seen on the hill. Though it superficially resembled the standard three-toed footprints with claw marks, it was situated far-off from the recognized web site we had simply visited.

Curiosity piqued, we took a number of extra steps and stumbled upon extra intriguing footprints. These footprints had distinct shapes that had been beforehand unseen within the Roma space. They had been quick and large with rounded, stubby toes. Some had been accompanied by star-shaped handprints. These footprints belonged to herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs and had been being documented for the primary time within the Roma Valley, which is understood for its wealthy fossil footprints. This discovery expands scientists’ understanding of the various dinosaur group that lived within the Roma Valley in the course of the Early Jurassic interval, roughly 200 million years in the past.

It appears that evidently typically, a unsuitable flip can lead you to the best place, though it’s a uncommon incidence.

New, previous, and historical

The observe web site we stumbled upon was new to our dino-tracking workforce from the College of Cape City in South Africa. Nevertheless, it was not a newly found web site. Often called the Mokhosi web site, it was reported in 2003 by monitoring fanatic and arithmetic professor David Ambrose from the Nationwide College of Lesotho. Ambrose famous the presence of enormous three-toed footprints within the space, with the potential of extra preserved beneath the sand.

Our thorough examination of the observe web site, spanning 18 meters by 2 meters, revealed further fossil proof throughout the rock. We documented a complete of 35 footprints, most of which had been a part of trackways heading in numerous instructions.

All of the footprints had been three-toed and may very well be categorized into two foremost form groupings. The primary group consisted of longer-than-wide footprints with slender toes and sharp claw marks, indicating the presence of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. The theropod tracks at Mokhosi reached a most size of about 40cm, suggesting that these meat-eating dinosaurs stood at a towering peak of roughly 2 meters, surpassing the peak of people.

The second group of footprints, which had been wider-than-long with sturdy, rounded toes, exhibited traits in step with herbivorous ornithischian dinosaur trackmakers. We had been thrilled as we fastidiously examined these tracks, as globally, ornithischian footprints are much less widespread than theropod footprints in the course of the Early Jurassic interval.

This discovery marks the primary time that these distinct quadrupedal ornithischian footprints have been discovered within the Roma Valley. It’s outstanding contemplating that 14 observe websites have already been recognized and studied within the space.

Ready to be rediscovered

As we made our approach again to our automobile after an extended day, we took a second to admire the unimaginable web site we had by accident stumbled throughout. We knew that future rains and winds would finally cowl the Mokhosi observe web site as soon as once more, concealing its wonders beneath the sand.

We hope that the following one that comes throughout this web site experiences the identical pleasure as we did. To help future explorers, I want to present some clues: the close by bush is “bushier than the encircling ones,” the hill gradient “adjustments ever so barely above the track-bearing sandstone,” and the close by boulders are utterly “nondescript.”

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