For the first time, scientists have discovered dinosaur footprints made some 150 million years ago on the bedrock of the Arabian Peninsula.
Found near the village of Mdar in Yemen, these tracks are made by a herd of 11 sauropods--the long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs. Nearby, there is a separate track made by a lone ornithopod--a large, herbivorous dinosaur with bird like three-toed feet. Geologists say the impressions on the arid tract of land, which were once coastal mudflats, were "beautifully preserved" partly by rubble and debris. The findings shed light on the sparse fossil records reported from the region. There is also some unusual evidence: Although ornithopods and sauropods overlapped in time, it is somewhat unusual to find evidence of such a big ornithopod in the late Jurassic.