A new study has shown that an app powered by artificial intelligence could help users identify ancient dinosaur footprints. For decades, scientists have analyzed dinosaur tracks made millions of years ago and puzzled over whether they belonged to meat-eating predators, plant-eating giants or even early bird relatives.
Now, researchers and those interested in dinosaurs can upload a photo or a sketch of a dinosaur footprint directly from their phone to the app called DinoTracker.
It will instantly analyze the image and provide an assessment of which type of dinosaur the footprint is from.
Previously, research has shown that dinosaur footprints are extremely challenging to study due to erosion, lack of complete preservation, and more.
Traditional methods, like when researchers manually build databases to link specific footprints to certain dinosaurs, could introduce bias.
For the new study, a team of researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum research center in Berlin, collaborated with the University of Edinburgh to develop advanced algorithms that allow computers to train themselves to differentiate between dinosaur footprint shapes.
The AI model learned to recognize almost 2,000 fossil footprints, along with millions of simulated versions with additional variations to mimic natural distortions, such as compression and edge displacement.
The system identified eight main characteristics of footprint variation, including the position of the heel, the spread of the toes, the amount of weight placed on different parts of the foot, and how much of the foot made contact with the ground.
Once the system was familiar with all the variations, it was able to predict which dinosaur created the tracks. It agreed with 90% of the classifications made by human experts.
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With such a high level of accuracy, the AI model could be used as an important tool for scientific research.
It also found that several dinosaur footprints made over 200 million years ago share similar traits with the feet of both extinct and modern birds.
The discovery suggests that birds originated tens of millions of years earlier than previously thought. Or, some early dinosaurs may have had feet that coincidentally looked almost just like bird feet.
In addition, the system shed light on a set of mysterious footprints on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. They were formed around 170 million years ago on the muddy shore of a lagoon. The tracks might have been left behind by some of the oldest known relatives of duck-billed dinosaurs.
Overall, the technology has paved the way toward understanding more about how dinosaurs lived and moved across Earth. It even lets the general public participate in science.
“This study is an exciting contribution to paleontology and an objective, data-driven way to classify dinosaur footprints—something that has stumped experts for over a century,” said Steve Brusatte, the personal chair of Paleontology and Evolution at the School of Geosciences.
The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
