The footprints, found at several sites in southern Africa, were recently identified as the oldest birdlike tracks ever found, preceding the earliest known skeletal fossils of avians by about 60 million years. Some called the tracks birdlike, but others weren’t so sure. Ellenberger may have muddied the waters by assigning many differently shaped tracks to the ichnogenus, “and not all of them are birdlike,” Abrahams said. They could belong to other reptiles or cousins of dinosaurs that evolved birdlike feet,” Clarke said. During a trip to Maphutseng, a fossil locale in Lesotho, the team found a number of birdlike tracks from the Triassic Period.

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Persons: “, ”, Miengah Abrahams, Abrahams, Paul Ellenberger, Ellenberger, ” Abrahams, Julia Clarke, ” Clarke, there’s, Morphotype, paravians, —, ” Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, University of Cape, University of Texas, Scientific Locations: Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa, Austin, archosauria, Maphutseng, Lesotho