Rise of the dinosaurs traced back to their adaptation to cold

A dinosaur footprint in China's Xinjiang region. The scientists examined footprints from the Junggar Basin. Photograph: Alamy

Fossil hunters have traced the rise of the dinosaurs back to the freezing winters the beasts endured while roaming around the far north.

Footprints of the animals and stone deposits from north-west China suggest dinosaurs became adapted to the cold in polar regions before a mass extinction event paved the way for their reign at the end of the Triassic.