PARIS: Ancient crocodiles — long thought to have walked on all fours like their modern-day cousins — may have got around on two legs, according to new research published Thursday.
A team of researchers from China, Australia and the US analyzed footprints found at the Jinju Formation in modern day South Korea, a rich archaeological dig site that has led to the discovery of ancient species of lizards, spiders and tiny raptors dating back 120 million years.
They believe the footprints may have been made by a three-meter (10-foot) long crocodile ancestor — called Batrachopus grandis — that walked around “like a crocodile balancing on a tight-rope,” according to Kyung Soo Kim from the Chinju National University of Education.
“They were moving in the same way as many dinosaurs, but the footprints were not made by dinosaurs,” Kim said.
While the researchers initially thought the tracks were those of an ancient pterosaur — a winged dinosaur that roamed Earth until 66 million years ago — they more likely belonged to a particularly large and previously undiscovered member of the crocodylomorph family.
The 24-centimeter-long (10-inch) track prints give a sense of the size of these croc relatives.
Their legs, according to Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland and one of the study’s authors, would have been about the same size as those of an adult human. But their bodies were “over three meters in length.”
This would have made them about twice as large as relatives from the same time period.
The ancient crocodiles most likely would have walked flat on their feet, digging their heels into the earth much like humans do — leaving deep, narrow impressions.
Reconstructions of the crocodiles show they had a low center of gravity.
The lack of handprints and tail-drag marks found at the dig site, as well as the animal’s narrow gait, also indicated bipedal movement, Romilio added.
The finding could shed light on how other creatures from the Cretaceous period — such as pterosaurs — would have moved about, the authors added.
They noted that footprints from other fossil sites — such as the Haman Formation, also in South Korea — may have to be re-examined in light of the new discovery.
The study was published in Nature Scientific Reports.
‘Tight-rope walking’ crocodile may have stood on two legs: study
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‘Tight-rope walking’ crocodile may have stood on two legs: study
- Footprints found at the Jinju Formation in modern day South Korea were analyzed
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
