India, Dec. 5 -- Two brothers in southwestern China were astonished to learn that the rocks they had casually used as stepping stones for more than twenty years were in fact 190 million year old dinosaur footprint fossils.

According to a report by South China Morning Post, the discovery came to light after researchers completed a detailed study on November 29 into dinosaur tracks that had been found decades earlier in Wuli village in Sichuan province. Mainland media later revealed the extraordinary story behind the unassuming stones.

As reported by Guangming Daily and cited by SCMP, the Ding brothers first came across the unusual rocks in 1998 while quarrying stone. They noticed what they described as "chicken claw prints" on the slabs ...