(TibetanReview.net, Dec15’20) – Footprints on a rock surface that Tibetans in Qamdo (Tibetan: Chamdo) City of Tibet have long revered as those left behind by Tibet’s epic warrior King Gesar probably belonged to dinosaurs that had roamed the area more than 160 million years ago, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Dec 14, citing a team of international scientists.
The report said the team consisting of experts from China, the United States and Germany found about 99 footprints in sandstone in Qamdo City.
And their findings, published in the academic journal Historical Biology earlier this month, were reported to show that these footprints ranging from 22 cm to 99.3 cm in length were believed to have been left by large, medium and small-sized sauropods dating back to the Middle Jurassic period (about 176 to 161 million years ago).
Scientists were stated to estimate that these dinosaurs measured 22 meters, 10 meters and 5 meters in length, respectively.
The site of the large footprints is a famous tourist attraction and has become part of a folkloric legend, as locals believe the sauropod footprints were left by the mythological warrior King Gesar, Xing Lida, lead researcher of the team and an associate professor with the China University of Geosciences, was cited as saying.
Xing has said the local people’s belief that the footprints belonged to the Gesar of Ling had helped to keep the footprints intact.
Xing has said research teams from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China University of Geosciences had carried out explorations in the area from 2017 to 2019, finding multiple sets of footprints and collecting detailed data.