170m-Year Fossils Reveal Dinosaurs Roamed Alborz

Paleontologists from China and Iran have discovered the fossilized tracks of a biped dinosaur in the mountainous areas of Alborz Province during a joint expedition. During the construction of a highway, strange fossilized tracks were discovered in central Alborz, prompting the formation of a joint expedition with Chinese scientists to study the region, IRNA quoted Chinese state-owned newspaper The People's Daily as reporting. Paleontologists believe they belong to a species of Deinonychus, a type of dinosaur famous for its ferocious appearance in the Jurassic Park series. The common feature of Deinonychus is the unusually large, sickle-shaped talon on the second toe of each hind foot. According to Xing Lida, an associate professor at China University of Geosciences, Deinonychus tracks were first discovered in Sichuan in China in the early 1990s. "This discovery is important for two reasons," Nassrollah Abbasi, an associate professor of geology in Zanjan University, reportedly told ISNA. "It proves that feathered dinosaurs roamed in Iran and it also means that Deinonychus most likely predates the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 66 million years ago)," he said, adding that the fossil is around 170 million years old, which dates back to Jurassic Period.