Older than the T-Rex, theAcrocanthosaurus walked on its two hind legs, was 4.5 meters tall and ate “large herbivores”. The last time we saw it pass was 113 million years ago, explains Jeff Davis, the superintendent of Dinosaur Park Valley (Texas), in a video of CNN. The Paluxy river did not yet exist, it was a shallow inland sea, the mud of which he trod on.
Since then, the river has formed, covering its tracks. Thanks to this year’s drought, which has left many waterways dry all over the world, the footprints of the “ferocious predator”, according to Jeff Davis, already discovered during a previous historic drought a few years ago, are resurfacing.
These are the sediments at the bottom of this “inland sea”, “certainly silt or sand”, says Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, who froze the footprints by resisting late river erosion.
Remnants of the past
Droughts are always sources of scientific discoveries, recalls Spencer Lucas. He cites in particular the Dolmen of Guadalperal, also nicknamed the “Spanish Stonehenge”, which we have seen only four times in a hundred years. Or a spectacular Buddhist statue engraved in a relief of the bed of the dry Yangtze River, in China. Gu Yunfeng, a local tourist, told CNN:
“I don’t know if I will be able to see her again. This is the culture that our ancestors bequeathed to us.”
CNN finds that this drought is also translating into the recall of human feats more “claims” : Nazi boats self-sabotaged during the 1944 retreat have resurfaced in the Danube, and human remains in Switzerland or Texas.
And the CNN journalist to point out:
“As fascinating as these rediscoveries may be, they remind us that life as we know it cannot be taken for granted.”
But while droughts are devastating, they provide a scientific opportunity for research, notes Spencer Lucas:
“Why are certain species of fauna and flora more resilient than others? And how can our species adapt to the changes, so that we don’t go extinct?”