Scientists Discover Matching Dinosaur Footprints 7,000 Miles Apart on Two Continents

These dinosaurs hung out in today’s Africa and South America before the continents split.

Katrina Paulson
5 min readSep 15, 2024

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Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Today, humans dominate the planet’s seven continents, but once upon a time, dinosaurs ruled the world — and were the longest-reigning animal group to exist. Naturally, we’re curious, even fascinated by the dinosaurs and their version of Earth. Dinosaur fossils have been found worldwide and teach us what these animals may have looked like, ate, and a little about how they lived.

However, fossils and the sediment they reside in also tell us what Earth was like when dinosaurs roamed. For instance, experts have identified matching sets of dinosaur footprints in Brazil and Cameroon, which are on different continents… located on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. How in the heck did that happen? Well, I’ll tell you.

A Bit of Earth History

Before we get to the new research, let’s review a bit of Earth’s history. Today, Brazil, in South America, and Cameroon, in Africa, are separated by thousands of miles of ocean water. But for millions of years, the two continents were part of one massive supercontinent.

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Katrina Paulson

I wonder about humanity, questions with no answers, and new discoveries. Then I write about them here and on substack! https://curiousadventure.substack.com