Thousands of 210-million-year-old dinosaur tracks found in Italy

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - Thousands of dinosaur tracks left behind around 210 million years ago were discovered in Italy's Stelvio National Park located in the Central Alps, ANSA news agency reported Monday.

"It is a true ‘valley of the dinosaurs’ extending for kilometers: it is the largest site in the Alps and one of the richest in the world," paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso of the Milan Natural History Museum told ANSA.

The hundreds-meter-long tracks, left by herds of large herbivores on nearly vertical dolomite rock faces, were reportedly preserved well enough to show impressions of toes and claws.

Dal Sasso described the finding as one of the most important paleontological discoveries on Italian dinosaurs.

"This place was full of dinosaurs: it is an immense scientific heritage that will take decades to study, also because the site is not accessible by paths, and to examine the tracks we will have to use drones and remote sensing technologies," he explained.

According to initial analyses, the footprints are estimated to belong to Late Triassic prosauropod dinosaurs, which are long-necked, small-headed herbivores with sharp claws.