Danish Dinosaur Data Discovered

[Garrison Hilliard <garrison@efn.org>]

Dinosaur tracks on Denmark's rocky coast
Thursday, June 3, 2004 Posted: 1416 GMT (2216 HKT) 


COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- The Geological Museum in Copenhagen on Wednesday
received two fossil footprints left by a pair of Jurassic-era dinosaurs about
170 million years ago and believed to be the first of their kind found on the
Baltic Sea island of Bornholm.

The largest footprint, measuring 28 inches across, was believed to have been
left by a sauropod, a plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and tail, small
head and measuring as long as 66 feet. The other print likely was left by a
smaller ankylosaur, a four-legged, thickly armored plant eater, the museum said.

It was the first time that footprints were found on Bornholm, a rocky island
that sits between southern Sweden and northern Poland.

During the Jurassic age, the island enjoyed a tropical climate with a rich
vegetation and was not beneath sea like the rest of Denmark, Jesper Milan, a
doctoral geology student at the University of Copenhagen, told the Berlingske
Tidende newspaper.

Milan, who could not immediately be reached for comment, made the discovery last
month. He found the marks on two rocks that had fallen from a cliff onto the
beach along Bornholm's western coast.

Since 2000, geologists have found a velociraptor's tooth, and the tooth from
another sauropod on Bornholm.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/03/denmark.jurassicfootp.ap/index.html