Dinosaurs Paddled Long Distances with Coordinated Leg Movements: Study

A lot of can be spoken about how dinosaurs walked, because of footprints that have been preserved in silt. However, the question of whether dinosaurs could swim has been long debated for years due to the lack of fossil evidence.

A graduate student at the University of Alberta has now produced some of the strongest evidence ever found supporting the concept that dinosaurs could swim.

Together with an international team of researchers in China's Szechuan Province, Scott Persons, student at U of A, observed some unusual claw marks on fossilized rocks found at a river bottom. On analyzing the claw marks that were spotted in well-known dinosaur tracks, he determines that the marks were left by the tips of a two-legged dinosaur's feet.  

Such interesting findings on dinosaurs that are long extinct is crucial in understanding life on Earth in the 21^st century.

Looking at the claw marks, Persons interprets that dinosaurs swam along in the river, and just their tiptoes touched the bottom of the river. Based on the claw marks that covered a distance of 15 meters, the researchers say it is strong evidence of a dinosaur's ability to swim with coordinated leg movements. The traces were of a carnivorous two-legged dinosaur. The researcher roughly estimates the dinosaur to be up to one meter at the hip.

"We found evidence of six or eight individual animals, all headed in the same direction, moving together as if they were part of a herd," Persons was quoted as saying in Edmonton journal. "It looks as if they used the river bank as a superhighway. They were actually quite buoyant."

The researchers at the Szechuan Province fossil site will continue to analyze the site to find more evidence related to present day animals.

The study was published April 8 in the Journal Chinese Science Bulletin.