First Pterodactyl Footprints Spotted in China

["Kazuo TAKAHASHI" <pantheon@kw.netlaputa.ne.jp>]

Xinhuanet 2002-04-14 16:52:51
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-04/14/content_357627.htm

LANZHOU, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- An American archaeologist has 
identified some of the fossilized footprints found in northwest 
China's Gansu Province as belonging to the flying birdlike 
pterodactyl dinosaur.
   The footprints were identified by Martin Lockley, curator of 
the paleontology museum at the Colorado University. He found 13 
pterodactyl footprints on two pieces of fossilized rock in his 
tour to Gansu.
   These were the first pterodactyl dinosaur footprints ever 
discovered in China, said a Chinese archaeologist accompanying 
Lockley on his tour.
   More than 100 dinosaur footprints, claimed to be the largest of
their kind in the world so far, were found on the slope of a hill 
in Yongjing County of Gansu Province in 1999. Most of the 
footprints, composed of ten groups, remained intact.
   Since the discovery was announced, many dinosaur experts from 
around the world have come to Gansu to identify which dinosaurs 
the footprints exactly belong to and study kinematics, 
stratigraphy and other branches of science in relation to the 
footprints.
   It is rare for so many kinds of well-preserved dinosaur 
footprints to be found in one spot, Lockley said.
   Judging from the footprints, Lockley believed the pterodactyl 
was in the size of a condor with a wingspan of two meters.   

TAKAHASHI ,KAZUO
http://www.NetLaputa.ne.jp/~pantheon/
pantheon@kw.netlaputa.ne.jp