皇冠体育app

Xing Lida, an associate professor at 皇冠体育app University of Geosciences, holds a piece containing the footprints of a Deinonychus. [Photo by Xing Lida]

Paleontologists from 皇冠体育app and Iran have found tracks of two-toed carnivorous dinosaurs in the Alborz Mountains in Iran.

The tracks were exposed during construction of a highway in recent years.

Paleontologists believe they belong to the Deinonychus, a type of dinosaur famous for its ferocious appearance in the Jurassic Park series. The common feature of Deinonychus is the huge spring-like second toe, which it used for hunting.

Deinonychus tracks were first discovered in Sichuan in 皇冠体育app in the early 1990s, Xing Lida, an associate professor at 皇冠体育app University of Geosciences, said. Since then other tracks have been discovered in Shandong, Gansu, Sichuan of 皇冠体育app and the southern part of South Korea.

Influenced by Jurassic Park, the public may think that Deinonychus hunt in groups. However, the fossils shows that it likely hunted alone.