Meter-wide dinosaur print, one of largest ever, found in Bolivia

[July 27, 2016]  SUCRE, Bolivia (Reuters) - A footprint measuring over a meter wide that was made by a meat-eating predator some 80 million years ago has been discovered in Bolivia, one of the largest of its kind ever found.

The print, which measures 1.2 meters (1.3 yards) across, probably belonged to the abelisaurus, a biped dinosaur that once roamed South America, said Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia, who is studying the find.

The print was found some 64 kilometers (40 miles) outside the city of Sucre in central Bolivia by a tourist guide earlier this month. The soft clay area near Sucre is well known for dinosaur tracks, and skeletal remains of the abelisaurus have also previously been found in the region.

"This print is bigger than any other we have found to date in the area," Apesteguia said. "It is a record in size for carnivorous dinosaurs from the end of the Cretaceous period in South America."

(Reporting by David Mercado and Daniel Ramos; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia (R) measures a footprint measuring over a meter made by a meat-eating predator some 80 million years ago, one of the largest of its kind ever found, in Kinsa Saruska in the syncline of Maragua, some 60 km of Sucre, Bolivia, July 21, 2016. REUTERS/David Mercado