Photo: Caroline Wood / University of Oxford
Many are familiar with the looks and sizes of the dinosaurs that once roamed the Earth, but it may be harder to grasp that they once walked the same areas where we live and work today. The biggest dinosaur trackway in the history of the UK was recently unearthed in a quarry, featuring nearly 200 footprints in multiple paths that cross the limestone ground, forming a “dinosaur highway.”
Gary Johnson found the footprints in Oxfordshire while he was driving an excavator. “I was basically clearing the clay, and I hit a hump, and I thought it’s just an abnormality in the ground, but then it got to another, 3 meters (10 feet) along, and it was a hump again. And then it went another 3 meters—hump again,” he tells BBC. Aware of previous discoveries in the area, he correctly wondered if they could be dinosaur footprints. “I thought I’m the first person to see them. And it was so surreal—a bit of a tingling moment, really.”
This led to the discovery of five trackways, unearthed by a team of over 100 scientists and volunteers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham. The researchers made casts of the tracks and took thousands of photographs to create 3D models of the site, as well as of individual footprints. Given that a shallow lagoon covered the area, researchers believe dinosaurs left their prints as they stepped in the mud. Still, they aren’t entirely sure what led to the preservation of the footprints. One theory posits that there was possibly a storm that deposited sediments on top of the footprints, which kept them from being washed away.
The footprints date back to 166 million years ago, in the Middle Jurassic Period. To the delight of the researchers, they are so well preserved they were able to determine the particular species that left them. “The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur’s feet squelched in and out,” says Dr. Duncan Murdock, Earth Scientist at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), via a statement.
Two different types of dinosaurs are behind these imprints: the Cetiosaurus, a gigantic sauropod with a long neck, and the Megalosaurus, a smaller, carnivore dinosaur with distinctive, large, three-toed feet with claws. One of the most thrilling parts of the discovery is that their paths once crossed, literally. “Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found,” shares Dr. Emma Nicholls, Vertebrate Paleontologist at OUMNH.
So far, five paths have been unearthed–four belonging to the Cetiosaurs and one to the Megalosaurus. The longest trackway is 492 feet long but could extend much farther as researchers continue to look into it. “This is one of the most impressive track sites I’ve ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of the size of the tracks,” explains Kirsty Edgar, a micropaleontologist from the University of Birmingham. “You can step back in time and get an idea of what it would have been like, these massive creatures just roaming around, going about their own business.”
Ultimately, the discovery opens new possibilities in the world of paleontology, as it offers a different insight into the lives of these creatures. “You can learn things about how that animal moved. You can learn exactly what the environment that it was living in was like. So tracks give us a whole different set of information that you can’t get from the bone fossil record,” concludes Richard Butler, a paleobiologist from the University of Birmingham. “The really lovely thing about a dinosaur footprint, particularly if you have a trackway, is that it is a snapshot in the life of the animal.”
The biggest dinosaur trackway in the history of the UK was recently unearthed in a quarry.
Photo: University of Birmingham
It features nearly 200 footprints in multiple paths that cross the limestone ground, forming a “dinosaur highway.”
Photo: Dr. Luke Meade / University of Birmingham
The footprints date back to 166 million years ago, in the Middle Jurassic Period.
Photo: Emma Nicholls / Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Researchers made casts of the tracks and took thousands of photographs to create 3D models of the site, as well as of individual footprints.
Photo: Emma Nicholls / Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Given the area was covered by a shallow lagoon, researchers believe dinosaurs left their prints as they stepped in the mud.
Photo: Richard Butler
“The really lovely thing about a dinosaur footprint, particularly if you have a trackway, is that it is a snapshot in the life of the animal,” concludes Richard Butler, a paleobiologist from the University of Birmingham.
Photo: Dr. Luke Meade / University of Birmingham
Source: Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’; UK’s biggest ever dinosaur footprint site unearthed
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