Hundreds of Footprints Found in Jurassic ‘Dinosaur Highway’

Six months ago, a squad of paleontologists investigated a quarry successful Oxfordshire, England, that had immoderate antithetic bumps successful its floor. The bumps, arsenic it turns out, represent astir 200 dinosaur footprints from the Jurassic Period, that altogether marque up the largest dinosaur trackway successful the United Kingdom.

The tracks were made by a bevy of beasts, including ample herbivorous sauropods and carnivorous theropods—specifically, the probe squad believes they were near by the 60-foot-long (18-meter-long) Cetiosaurus and the 29.5-foot-long (9-meter-long) Megalosaurus, respectively. Megalosaurus became the archetypal dinosaur to beryllium scientifically named backmost successful 1824 (that’s right—modern dinosaur probe conscionable celebrated its 200th anniversary).

“Scientists person known astir and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than immoderate different dinosaur connected Earth, and yet these caller discoveries beryllium determination is inactive caller grounds of these animals retired there, waiting to beryllium found,” said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist astatine the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, successful a University of Birmingham release.

A paleoart reconstruction of the trackways being formed. Illustration: Mark Witton

Dinosaur trackways are tremendously utile to paleontologists adjacent though the fossil remnants don’t impact bones. The footprints are fossilized traces of ancient beingness arsenic it happened—they tin amusement however galore antithetic organisms and individuals occupied a tract astatine a fixed time, the benignant of situation they were traveling through, and the assorted sizes and ages of the creatures successful the area.

The ichnological finds—that is, pertaining to the survey of footprints, not of food (ichthyological)—are a large model into the past world, and, erstwhile paired with grounds gleaned from fossilized bones, they assistance archer a more holistic story astir beingness that came earlier us.

According to the Birmingham release, the footprint “highway” is not the archetypal to beryllium discovered successful Oxfordshire. Over 40 sets of fossil footprints were recovered successful a limestone quarry successful the country successful 1997, revealing aspects of the dinosaurs that lived successful what is present England during the Jurassic Period.

However, a batch has changed technologically successful astir 30 years. Paleontologists tin catalogue overmuch much accusation astir the trackways than before. The squad took implicit 20,000 images of the prints during the caller excavation, which could supply accusation astir the animals that made the tracks and imaginable interactions betwixt the animals.

“The preservation is truthful elaborate that we tin spot however the mud was deformed arsenic the dinosaur’s feet squelched successful and out,” said Duncan Murdock, an world idiosyncratic astatine the Oxford University museum, successful the aforesaid release. “Along with different fossils similar burrows, shells and plants we tin bring to beingness the muddy lagoon situation the dinosaurs walked through.”

Further scrutiny volition apt output details of the Jurassic creatures that crisscrossed the site, but for present the awesome standard of the tracks and the beasts that made them volition person to do.