Dinosaur footprints from 100 million years ago were discovered in a restaurant in southwestern China.
A diner in the restaurant noticed the footprints of two dinosaurs in some stone pits. After being examined by Lida Xing, a palaeontologist from the China University of Geosciences, it was confirmed that the footprints belonged to sauropods. This is a type of dinosaur that lived in the early Cretaceous period.
The sauropods were one of the largest animals that have ever existed. Fossils from this kind of dinosaur are extremely rare, so this discovery is important evidence of the diversity of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period which was 145.5 million years ago - 66 million years ago.
In order to preserve this discovery, the restaurant’s owner has fenced off the stone pits so that people do not step on them. A shed is also going to be built over them to protect them from the sun.