Children hold dinosaurs in awe. Photo used for illustrative purposes.

Nearly 30 years ago, Steven Spielberg launched his exotic foray into the world of dinosaurs with the blockbuster Jurassic Park, which both excited and scared viewers of the movie.

Ever since, dinosaurs have caught the fancy of teeny-boppers and adults alike, even researchers. There were several theories doing the rounds, including one that said one single asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs from the face of the earth, while another finding screamed that gas-belching volcanoes were responsible for their extinction.

Suddenly, breeds like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor had been catapulted into the limelight. Interestingly the pet dinosaur in the world of the comic characters, the Flintstones, is called Dino.

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Now, something unusual has happened in China, which has sparked an interest in the amazing species.

A diner sitting in the premises of a restaurant in Sichuan province came across something very bizarre: a dinosaur footprint on the ground. Chinese palaeontologists confirmed his discovery, saying he was right. According to a report in a section of the Australian media, the depressions had been left by two dinosaurs as they moved across the region. And this happened 100 million years ago!

A diner sitting in the premises of a restaurant has found a dinosaur footprint on the ground.

One of the scientists Lida Xing said the footprints were those of sauropods, large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and four legs.

It is very unusual that the tracks were found in a restaurant, as they are normally not observed in urban areas.

But this is not the first time that there have been accidental discoveries of dinosaur existence. Eleven years ago, a dinosaur ‘corpse’ was unravelled by miners in Canada.

Last year, one archaeologist in England was searching for clams on a beach when she came across the 165-million-year-old footprint of a species of theropod, a dinosaur akin to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The restaurant owner, however, was worried that the discovery of the footprints would harm his business. But the media flashbulbs have calmed her fears. Now, she has gone one step further: she is planning some delicacies based on the dinosaur theme!