Photos: Millions Of Years Old Dinosaur Footprint Found At NASA's Goddard Campus In Greenbelt [PHOTOS & VIDEO]
By Kukil Bora | Aug 21, 2012 08:58 PM EDT
About 112 million years ago, a plant-eating dinosaur, known as nodosaur, roamed what is now NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, leaving a huge footprint in the Cretaceous mud that came to notice only this summer.
On Friday, Aug. 17, dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford shared the location of the footprint, which the dinosaur made with its back left foot, with Goddard's facility management. The footprint, sticking out of the grass, was similar to that of an elephant and was nearly 14 inches wide.
Although NASA officials accepted the discovery as an authentic dinosaur footprint for the time being, they said that they'd be calling in experts to confirm the find and search the area for other evidence, the Washington Post reported.
"This was a large, armored dinosaur," Stanford said. "Think of it as a four-footed tank. It was quite heavy, there's a quite a ridge or push-up here. ... Subsequently the sand was bound together by iron-oxide or hematite, so it gave us a nice preservation, almost like concrete."
Stanford said that nodosaurs were like "four-footed tanks." They grew thick, spiky armor knobbed with big "nodes." They used to browse vegetation and crouched down low to protect themselves from toothy attacks.
Stanford has had a number of papers published, which include the discovery of a new species of nodosaur from a fossilized hatchling that was found near the University of Maryland in College Park. The nodosaur that made the huge footprint at Goddard probably belonged to the early Cretaceous period and could be 15 to 20 feet long.
The Cretaceous Period ran between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago, and was the last period of the Mesozoic Era, according to NASA.
Stanford also identified and presented several smaller footprints - three-toed, flesh-eating therapods - to Goddard officials from the same site.
"Space scientists may walk along here, and they're walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy armored dinosaur walked, maybe 110 to 112-million years ago," Stanford said.
Have a look at the photos and the video below:
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Local dinosaur hunter Ray Stanford points out the impression to Goddard officials and members of local media.
Source: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Date:08/21/2012
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Date:08/21/2012
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Date:08/21/2012
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Local dinosaur hunter Ray Stanford points out the impression to Goddard officials and members of local media.
Source: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Date:08/21/2012
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Source: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth Date:08/21/2012
This imprint shows the right rear foot of a nodosaur - a low-slung, spiny leaf-eater - apparently moving in haste as the heel did not fully settle in the cretaceous mud, according to dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford. It was found recently on NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center campus and is being preserved for study.
Source: Ray Stanford Date:08/21/2012
