An American archaeologist has identified some of the fossilized footprints found in northwest China's Gansu Province as belonging to the flying birdlike pterodactyl dinosaur.

The footprints were identified by Martin Lockley, curator of the paleontology museum at the Colorado University. He found 13 pterodactyl footprints on two pieces of fossilized rock in his tour to Gansu.

These were the first pterodactyl dinosaur footprints ever discovered in China, said a Chinese archaeologist accompanying Lockley on his tour.

More than 100 dinosaur footprints, claimed to be the largest of their kind in the world so far, were found on the slope of a hill in Yongjing County of Gansu Province in 1999. Most of the footprints, composed of ten groups, remained intact.

Since the discovery was announced, many dinosaur experts from around the world have come to Gansu to identify which dinosaurs the footprints exactly belong to and study kinematics, stratigraphy and other branches of science in relation to the footprints.

It is rare for so many kinds of well-preserved dinosaur footprints to be found in one spot, Lockley said.

Judging from the footprints, Lockley believed the pterodactyl was in the size of a condor with a wingspan of two meters.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2002)