Paleontologists have discovered nearly 200 dinosaur tracks forming what experts are calling a “dinosaur highway.” The tracks are located in Oxfordshire, England, and date back 166 million years.
Worker Gary Johnson found the tracks while digging up clay in a quarry in June 2023. He noticed strange bumps in the ground. A team of more than 100 people then investigated the bumps, which turned out to be dinosaur tracks. The team took more than 20,000 digital pictures of the prints. It also created 3-D models. The find was announced to the press early this month.
The team took photos, made concrete molds, and created 3-D models to visualize the dinosaurs.
EMMA NICHOLS—OUMNH/AP
Researchers found that four sets of tracks belong to long-necked dinosaurs. They believe the dinosaurs were Cetiosauruses, a type of giant herbivore that grew to nearly 60 feet in length. Another set belonged to a Megalosaurus, a ferocious predator.
The prints are very detailed. Duncan Murdock, an Earth scientist at the Oxford Museum of Natural History, said they even show “how the mud was deformed as the [dinosaurs’] feet squelched in and out.” They could give scientists a better idea of the dinosaurs’ size, as well as how they moved.
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