Photos: How climate change is unearthing new histories

Dino footprints exposed in a drying riverbed, sunken cities, once-submerged idols. See how a warming Earth is impacting ancient sites

Published on Sep 23, 2022 07:53 PM IST 8 Photos

In Texas, USA, a mega-drought has revealed 113 million-year-old footprints of an acrocanthosaurus in the dried-up riverbed of the Paluxy River. The massive footprints, ironically situated within the Dinosaur Valley State Park, have not been seen since 2000.(Image Courtesy: Paul Baker)

The trail is most likely the work of a single acrocanthosaurus, most likely 15 ft tall, weighing seven tonnes, archaeologists say. The two-legged, three-toed apex predator lived in the Early Cretaceous period, about 50 million years before its more famous cousin, the tyrannosaurus rex.(Image Courtesy: Paul Baker)

China is experiencing its most extreme heatwave in six decades. Rainfall along the basin of the Yangtze, the world’s third-largest river, has been 45% lower than usual. Lower parts of the basin are now in full view.(Thomas Peter/REUTERS)

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At the Foyeliang island reef, three 600-year-old Buddhist statues, carved into a boulder, are now visible. They date to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The largest is about 1 metre high and depicts a monk sitting on a lotus pedestal, flanked by two junior monks, presumably blessing boats as they pass by.(Thomas Peter/REUTERS)

As droughts drop Spain’s Valdecañas reservoir to less than 30% of its capacity, an ancient funerary mound is now visible. Some 144 megalithic stones from 5000 BCE, arranged like a sort of Stonehenge, are being studied at close range.(Susana Vera/REUTERS)

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