Guanajuato, Gto., January 1, 2018.- The prints of a millennial bird were found on rocks in the city of Guanajuato. Workers who were collecting quarry for construction, they realized that some of the rocks had uncommon markings, so they got in touch with the Department of Engineering in Mines, Metallurgy and Geology to examine them.

This discovery was documented by Dr. Raúl Miranda Avilés, professor at the Department of Engineering in Mines, Metallurgy and Geology of the University of Guanajuato (UG). Dr. Miranda, narrated in an interview, that the rocks in which they detected the prints are close the hills of Presa de la Olla.

"We hadn't found this kind of prints nor this size, the rock is a green color sandstone known as "Losero formation", it is 32 million years old, that correspond to the Oligocene period. We found 25 prints in different pieces", mentioned the researcher.

Likewise, he mentioned that this discovery was presented in the Congress of the Mexican Geophysical Union in 2015. Analyzing the rocks and the prints, Dr. Miranda explained that the sedimentary ambient of the rock was rain and very low energy, we think they're a species of a very heavy crane that could be larger than a meter and a half."

He continued saying that "we studied the trace of the prints and detected that, the bird was eating while walking, because we interpreted some of the figures as pecks. This would be the first report of birds on this kind in Mexico's Central Mesa."

The next step will be in collaboration with a researcher expert in prints, "for now, we observed that the print has three fingers with a spur and a bearing in the center, we think the bird was like a Canadian crane (Grus canadensis), but heavier."

It is important to mention that, the researchers of the Department of Engineering in Mines, Metallurgy and Geology of the University of Guanajuato are responsible for generating new scientific knowledge and solve problems of Geology in Mexico. Plus, they want to solve problems of regional and national interest, particularly in the branches of Geosciences, such as Stratigraphy, Structural Geology, Geochemistry, Mineral deposits and Environmental Engineering.

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