Scientist’s have discovered the first dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula. The footprints belong to a large ornithopod (a large, common plant-eater that walked on its hind-legs) as well as a herd of 11 sauropods (long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods).

Ornithopods

They’re very excited about this discovery since it sheds light on dinosaur herding behaviour. The site preserved footprints of small and large sauropods travelling at the same speed. It’s apparently rare to see such a big example of a dinosaur herd.

The rocks in which the dinosaur tracks are preserved are likely Late Jurassic in age, some 150 million years old. The tracks probably went unnoticed for so long because they were too big to be spotted by the untrained eye and were partially covered by rubble and debris.

Scientists hope that this discovery will aid them in finding answers to some important questions: “When and where did certain dinosaurs live, and why?”; "How did the distribution change over time?”; “Why did one replace another?” or “Why did they move from one place to another?".

We’ll have to wait and see…

Source: ScienceDaily