Tracks give a boost to theory that Italy was once connected to Africa.
ROME, Aug. 24 — The discovery of as many as 60 dinosaur footprints in the “spur” of the Italian peninsula has added new evidence to the theory that Italy was once part of a land mass attached to the African continent, geologists say.
THE THREE-FINGERED footprints, some as long as 18 inches, were found in June in a cave near San Giovanni Rotondo, in the southeastern region of Puglia, said Alfonso Bosellini, a geology professor and the head of the group of researchers who made the recently announced discovery.
“It is not as if you can be 100 percent sure, but at this point it is highly probable that Italy was connected to Africa,” Bosellini told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Bosellini said that the footprints attest to the presence here of at least four different types of huge dinosaurs, both meat-eating and plant-eating, believed to have lived 120 million to 130 million years ago at the end of the Jurassic era.
Back then, the land that now makes up Italy was a single land mass with what is now the Balkans, all sharing the same geological composition. For some decades, experts have debated whether the mass was connected to the African continent or stood alone.
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Alien - Administrator / Owner
["Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed]
ROME, Aug. 24 — The discovery of as many as 60 dinosaur footprints in the “spur” of the Italian peninsula has added new evidence to the theory that Italy was once part of a land mass attached to the African continent, geologists say.
THE THREE-FINGERED footprints, some as long as 18 inches, were found in June in a cave near San Giovanni Rotondo, in the southeastern region of Puglia, said Alfonso Bosellini, a geology professor and the head of the group of researchers who made the recently announced discovery.
“It is not as if you can be 100 percent sure, but at this point it is highly probable that Italy was connected to Africa,” Bosellini told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Bosellini said that the footprints attest to the presence here of at least four different types of huge dinosaurs, both meat-eating and plant-eating, believed to have lived 120 million to 130 million years ago at the end of the Jurassic era.
Back then, the land that now makes up Italy was a single land mass with what is now the Balkans, all sharing the same geological composition. For some decades, experts have debated whether the mass was connected to the African continent or stood alone.
Want to learn more?
----------------------------
Alien - Administrator / Owner
["Everything was true. God was an alien. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed]