Guess What Turned Up in an African Diamond Mine?

A dinosaur, a crocodile and a raccoon walk into a future diamond mine...

No, it's not the beginning of a joke.  It's an event that occurred 118 million years ago.  This week, scientist announced an important discovery made in a diamond mine in Angola - but it wasn't diamonds.

Scientists have discovered footprints of a dinosaur, a crocodile-like creature and a mammal the size of a raccoon in the Catoca Diamond Mine.  Even though it is the fourth largest diamond mine in the world, it stopped mining for eight months in the sector where the tracks were found!

Around 70 tracks were found in a small sedimentary basin in the crater of one of the mine's kimberlite pipes.  Ripple marks preserved in the sediment near the tracks indicate that an ancient shallow lake may have been a watering hole for the animals.

Eighteen of the tracks were made by sauropods, long-necked dinosaurs that were the largest creatures to ever walk the earth.  The footprints are up to 20 inches wide.  Some of the prints left skin impressions as well.

The mammal's tracks are the one's that are the most fascinating for scientists.  Fossil evidence of mammals from the time of dinosaurs is rare.  These prints are large for mammals at this time and may shed new light on the development of mammals.






 How old are the tracks in relation to diamonds?  The oldest diamonds are around 3 billion years old - the tracks are 118 million!