AI predicts that a dinosaur thought to be predatory may have been an herbivore

The new analysis was done by using deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) – computing systems based on neural networks of the brain – to track the fossils of these prehistoric reptiles. The study was conducted by Dr. Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland, and his team of team from Australia, the U.K. and Germany. For decades, scientists thought the giant footprints left by the dinosaurs were from a carnivorous dinosaur. "Large dinosaur footprints were first discovered back in the 1970s at a track site called the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, and for many years they were believed to be left by a predatory dinosaur, like Australovenator, with legs nearly two meters long, said Dr. Romilio. The discovery, using artificial intelligence, leads researchers to believe that the dinosaur was actually a friendly plant-eating prehistoric reptile. Dr. Romilio mentioned the difficulty in tracing the footprints from millions of years ago to determine the truth of what kind of dinosaur it really was. "The mysterious tracks were thought to be left during the mid-Cretaceous Period, around 93 million years ago," he stated. But working out what dino species made the footprints exactly--especially from tens of millions of years ago--can be a pretty difficult and confusing business."