New AI method helps identify which dinosaur made which footprints

Footprints are among the most common kind of dinosaur fossils. Sometimes scientists find a single, lonely footprint. Sometimes they come across a ‍chaotic jumble of tracks resembling a dance floor, sort of ​a dinosaur discotheque. But identifying which dinosaur left which track has been notoriously difficult.

Researchers have now developed a method ⁠harnessing artificial intelligence to assist in pinpointing the type of dinosaur responsible for the tracks, based on eight different traits of a given footprint.