Researchers in Malaysia are claiming that seven fossilised prehistoric footprints supposedly made by dinosaurs from the Sauropod group have been discovered in the country.

The fossilised footprints are believed to be 66 million years old.

The claim and discovery were made by a team of researchers from the Department of Geoscience, Faculty of Earth Sciences (FSB), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK).

The exact location of the prints is at Bukit Panau, Tanah Merah, Kelantan.

Largest land creatures

The Sauropod group included the largest herbivorous animals to have ever lived on land.

Sauropod dinosaurs were known for their long necks, long tails, small heads, and four thick, pillar-like legs.

They can weigh 30 to 40 tonnes.

The largest sauropod known was 33m to 34m long.

In comparison, the largest known python these days is about 7m.

The researchers' claim is significant as it means that dinosaurs could have once existed in the Malay Peninsula, 700km north of Singapore.

Exploration started in 2017

The discovery was made after more than 10,000 man hours of exploration led by FSB lecturer Arham Muchtar Achmad Bahar.

Arham Muchtar said the research was started in May 2017, and it involved tracking the route of the dinosaur from the Sauropod subgroup.

The team included Prof Surono Martosuwito, Prof Udi Hartono, and Mohd Syakir Sulaiman.

“The discovery proved that at one time, a long time ago, expected between 160 to 66 million years ago, dinosaurs once lived at a place we now know as Tanah Merah, Kelantan," Arham Muchtar said in a statement today.

Curiously, the researchers' statement gave an impossibly lengthy timeline as it said the footprints are believed to be between 145,000 and 66 million years old.

According to Arham Muchtar, the discovery of the fossils of seven footprints of the Sauropod group was a meaningful success for UMK, especially with the establishment of the Department of Geoscience, Faculty of Earth Sciences which conducts research on the life of dinosaurs.

"Researchers spent more than 10,000 hours investigating and tracking dinosaurs in Kelantan and the traces of the tracks found have also been confirmed by experts from the Dinosaur World in Japan," he said.

"The existence of dinosaurs in Bukit Panau has also been expected by many geologists based on the geological conditions that can be associated with some areas in southern Thailand that also contain dinosaur fossils."

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Top photo via Wikipedia & Sinar Harian