Tiny cat-sized stegosaur leaves its mark

A life reconstruction of the stegosaur trackmakers and palaeo-environment of 110 million years ago. Image: Kaitoge - A single footprint left by a cat-sized dinosaur around 100 million years ago has been discovered in China by an international team of palaeontologists. University of Queensland researcher Dr Anthony Romilio was part of the team that investigated the track, originally found by Associate Professor Lida Xing from the China University of Geosciences (Beijing). "This footprint was made by a herbivorous, armoured dinosaur known broadly as a stegosaur - the family of dinosaurs that includes the famed stegosaurus,' Dr Romilio said. "Like the stegosaurus, this little dinosaur probably had spikes on its tail and bony plates along its back as an adult. "With a footprint of less than six centimetres, this is the smallest stegosaur footprint known in the world. "It's in strong contrast with other stegosaur prints found at the Chinese track site which measured up to 30 centimetres, and prints found in places like Broome in Western Australia where they can be up to 80 centimetres.' The tiny footprint has similar characteristics of other stegosaur footprints with three short, wide, round toe impressions.