Scotland, as I’ve written before, is one of the world’s most beautiful countries. And that isn’t just a biased opinion, it’s actually been ranked by travelers as the most beautiful country in the world, and with good reason. Scotland’s various vistas and historical landmarks truly do make it a one-of-a-kind country. And even with all of its deep, human history, Scotland has an even deeper history of creatures that no longer exist on this planet.
According to Independent, a team of scientists have found what they believe to be footprints of dinosaurs who once roamed the earth over 170 million years ago. These gigantic footprints were found by Dr. Steve Brusatte and his team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. The team was able to find not one, but two separate sets of footprints from different dinosaurs, the cousins of Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Given the carbon dating of the footprints, these were most likely made during the Jurassic Period, when Scotland’s climate was much warmer.
The find is actually rather significant, considering that not many fossil sites have been found of the Middle Jurassic Period. Scotland is no stranger to significant paleontologic findings; in 2015, researchers found a similar pair of footprints on Skye. Although the conditions made it difficult to study the prints, the researchers were still able to learn a great deal about the time period.
Researchers involved with the study claim that this new find will certainly be a crucial piece of information as we continue to piece together what life was like when dinosaurs ruled the earth.
Scotland has always been a magical place, and I will continue to love it for what it is now, but I can only imagine what it was like during the time of the dinosaurs. I’m very excited about this new discovery, and I can only imagine that there are hundreds of other footprints and fossils left by the dinosaurs. Hopefully these new findings will allow us to locate even more!