World's smallest dinosaur footprint found in Korea

By Shin Hae-in

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- A fossilized footprint of a baby dinosaur was found in one of South Korea's southeastern provinces, which local scholars said Monday is of the smallest footprint of the species found so far.

The theropoda dinosaur's footprint, measuring 1.27cm long and 1.06cm wide, was
found in 2007 by a resident in Changseon, South Gyeongsang Province, and later
confirmed by two experts, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage
said in a press release.
The fossil, technically dubbed the ???Minisauripusichnosp???and normally found in
Korea and China, is about 29 percent smaller than the dinosaur footprint
currently recognized as the smallest of its species by the Guinness Book of
Records, the institute said.
The footprint recorded by Guinness was found on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and
measures 1.78cm long by 1.16cm wide.
???The fossil is believed to date back some 100 million years, belonging to a
newborn dinosaur no bigger than 10cm," said Prof. Kim Gyeong-su of Chinju
National University of Education, one of the two scholars who confirmed the
fossil.
The fossil was recognized as an important find by scholars attending the 69th
Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, held at England's
University of Bristol last month, Kim added.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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