Megaraptor: Fossil footprints found in China lead to new dinosaur species

Take a look at these amazing ancient footprints of a new species of megaraptor dinosaur.

They were discovered by a team of scientists back in 2020 who found around 250 sets of well-preserved dinosaur tracks in the mud-flats in the Longyan prefecture, Fujian, in China.

From looking at the footprints, a team of researchers found several interesting sets belonging to a new species of raptor named Fujianipus yingliangi.

Raptors were sharp-clawed, fast-paced predator dinosaurs that lived in the Late Cretaceous Period - around 65-100 million years ago - and are closely related to birds.

The giant raptor footprints measured in at a whopping 36 centimetres long, which scientists think could have meant the dinosaur had a hip height of around 1.8m and was around five metres long - but they would need to look at the creature's bones to get a clearer idea of what they might have looked like.

An artist's drawing of what the Fujianipus yingliangi might have looked like

Raptor tracks are a little different to other dinosaurs' footprints, and are recognisable due to the fact that only two toe imprints can be seen in their print.

This is because they kept their third long, sharp, claw-like toe off the ground, to stop it from dragging and becoming blunt, and their fourth toe was much smaller than the others.

Speaking about Fujianipus yingliangi's size in their study, the researchers said: "Standing an estimated 1.8m at the hip, Fujianipus is among the largest known raptors.

"Interestingly, some of our research team has also worked on the world's tiniest dinosaur footprints - raptor tracks in South Korea that are just one centimetre long," said Dr Anthony Romilio, who worked on the study.

"It just goes to show the incredible size range among raptor dinosaurs, highlighting their adaptability and ecological diversity," he added.