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BBC Learning English
Words in the News
8
th
October 2010
Oldest dinosaur footprints found
Scientists have found dinosaur-like footprints in a 250-million-year-old rock, suggesting that
first dinosaur-like creatures emerged up to nine million years earlier than previously thought.
Our Science Correspondent, Pallab Ghosh reports:
These earliest
dinosaur
-like animals were about the size of domestic cats. They would have
weighed two or three pounds (1 to 1.5 kilos) and walked on four legs.
But what's really intrigued scientists is that they date from two million years after the worst
mass extinction
event in the history of the planet.
It was a time when
volcanic eruptions
, sudden
global warming
and a
stagnation
of the
oceans
wiped out
more than 90% of all life on Earth.
Up until recently scientists thought that dinosaurs emerged 15 to 20 million years after this
event. But the new footprints suggest that they arose directly as a result of the
devastation
,
filling a
gaping
ecological
void
. Without the mass extinctions there would have been no
dinosaurs.
Pallab Ghosh, BBC News, London
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010
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bbclearningenglish.com
Vocabulary and definitions
dinosaur
large reptile that lived around 200 million years ago
mass extinction
large number of deaths in a relatively short period of time
volcanic eruptions
explosions of ash, fire and liquid rock coming out of the
earth
global warming
increased average temperatures across the world
stagnation
inactivity
wiped out
completely destroyed
devastation
destruction
gaping
very wide
ecological
connected with plants, animals and the environment
void
area of empty space
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Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010
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bbclearningenglish.com
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