Pukyong National University

Largest coral dinosaur foot skin skin fossil found
PKNU Professor Baek In-Sung’s research paper, published in Nature Sisters

△ Footprints of sauropod dinosaurs found in Haman-gun, Gyeongnam Province, and impressions of plantar tissues of the plantar surface, which are clearly preserved in the cast (provided by Caucasian et al. (2017) Scientific Repository)

Pukyong National University Baek In-Sung Professor (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences) has attracted academia’s interest in discovering fossil impression of footprints of dinosaur footprints with very clear traces of plantar skin tissue.

△ Baek In-Sung Professor. Photo ⓒ Lee Sung Jae (Public Relations Team)

The fossil footprints that were discovered this time are the largest and most obvious fossil carcass traces that have ever been reported in the world. It is valued as valuable material to know about dinosaur ecology of 100 million years ago (Cretaceous).

While investigating the Cretaceous sedimentary layer (Haman Formation) in the Haman County area of Gyeongnam Province, Professor Baek discovered this footprint skin impression fossil in the rocks recovered at the construction site.

This fossil is more than 50 cm in diameter and has a hexagonal irregular skin structure with a width of 6 ~ 19 mm in width and a honeycomb pattern in the footprint. This pattern is similar to the foot of a modern elephant.

"There are so many dinosaur footprints found all over the world so far, but it is very rare that the skin marks in the footprints are preserved," said Professor Baek. "This is because of the thin mud covering the sand in relatively dry climates, It also turned out that the condition of preserving the skin-impression fossils such as the skin of the soles is slowed down when the dinosaurs slowly walk on the mud in which the microorganisms are inhabited."

The researchers analyzed that the dinosaurs developed a multi-faceted irregular skin structure across the sole that allowed the dinosaurs to increase their friction with the surface and walk without slipping in pearls or mud.

Professor Baek said, "The development of multi-faceted irregular skin tissue on the soles of dinosaurs in the latter half of the Mesozoic era, including the Cretaceous period, seems to be related to the extension of dinosaur habitats from the forests to the developed plains of lakes and plains." said. <Pukyong Today>



△ Footprints of sauropod dinosaurs found in Haman-gun, Gyeongsang Province, and tissue impression of plantar surface of uneven surface of the casts (provided by Caucasian et al. (2017) Scientific Repository)

△ Reproduction of the soles of herbivorous dinosaurs (southern dinosaurs) that lived in the southern part of the Korean peninsula at the time of the Cretaceous (Yoo Hyunjeong, provided by Caucasian et al. (2017) Scientific Repository)