Mittwoch, 22. Oktober 2008

Bernburg's Middle Triassic Prosauropods

During the last months German newspapers reported dinosaur findings from over 240 Million year old strata (uppermost section of Buntstandstein) outcropping in Bernburg in middle-east Germany.

Scientists from Halle university and Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte referred some trackways with large pentadactyl imprints to prosauropod dinosaurs. Their consequent conclusion was that dinosaurs were proven to be a much older group than previously documented and that major dinosaur lineages had already diverged by early Middle Triassic time.

Some debate arose, reported by DER SPIEGEL: Link

There is also a photo series - you may have a look at the images. Critics say that the material includes merely large indistinguishable archosauromorph imprints, classically referred to the "handtier" Chirotherium.

I'm interested in the evidence provided by Cajus Diedrich from Halle to support his interpretation - currently there is a scientific paper dealing with the matter on the way of publication. I suppose at least some scepticism is justified when a track-trackmaker correlation with such far-reaching implications is made. We will see.