A site with diverse fossil dinosaur footprints was discovered by an international archeological expedition on June 17 in Tancheng county, Linyi, East China's Shandong province.

The team, consisting of experts and scholars from China, the United States and Australia, found more than 300 footprints left by a large group of different dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period some 120 million years ago.

The most prominent of them are four parallel tracks of small deinonychosaurs, each seven to eight centimeters long. The footprints are the first of this species to be found in the world.

"The discovery of the dinosaur footprints was shocking, as no dinosaur skeletons have been found in this area before", said Wang Xiaoli, head of the Institute of Geology and Paleontology at Linyi University, Shandong province. 

"With footprints from long-necked sauropods and bird-like theropods, this may be the most diverse area of dinosaur tracks ever discovered", said Xing Lida from the Chinese University of Geosciences.

Xinhua contributed to the story.                                             

Scientists have discovered an area filled with more than 300 fossil footprints of dinosaurs that lived during the Lower Cretaceous period in Tancheng county of Shandong. [Photo/langya.cn] 

A photo taken on June 17 shows a sauropod dinosaur footprint in Tancheng county of Shandong. [Photo/langya.cn]

Artist's illustration of sauropod dinosaurs. [Photo/langya.cn]