Giant dinosaur footprint discovered in Bolivia

Bolivia has no known dinosaur body fossils, but it is home to several different dinosaur trackways locations. One location is the spectacular Cal Orck’o site which preserves thousands of footprints on a nearly vertical rock wall just a few kilometers outside of Sucre.

This summer, a paleontological guide named Grover Marquina discovered an enormous footprint from a theropod at a site about 65 km from Sucre. The footprint is preserved in rocks dated to approximately 80 million years old, measures 115 cm across, and was probably made by an abelisaur. Abelisaurs were bipedal carnivores common in the southern continents during the Cretaceous. They are characterized by very small arms, short faces (often with horns or other ornaments), and muscular tails, and include the namesake Abelisaurus, brow-horned Carnotaurus, and single-horned Majungasaurus.