Unique ‘dinosaur road’: hundreds of giant footprints found in Britain
5 January 14:54
VIDEO
A whole field with traces of dinosaurs that lived 166 million years ago has been found in the UK. The excavation site was unearthed by a quarry worker who felt “unusual impacts” when he was removing clay with his work truck. This is reported by the Independent, Komersant ukrainskyi informs
The universities of Oxford and Birmingham jointly led a team of more than 100 people on a week-long excavation in June 2024, discovering about 200 footprints, taking 20,000 photos and building detailed 3D models of the site using aerial photography from a drone.
Excavations carried out at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire by teams from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham have revealed five major tracks that form part of a “dinosaur highway” – with evidence of more in the surrounding area.
The longest continuous chain of tracks was more than 150 meters long, four of which were left by long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs called sauropods, and most likely belonged to a cetiosaur, a cousin of the 18-meter-long diplodocus.
The fifth track was laid by a nine-meter-long predatory megalosaurus, which had characteristic large three-toed feet with claws, the University of Birmingham said.
One section of the site shows overlapping tracks of a predator and a herbivore, raising questions about whether and how they interacted.
The new tracks are related to discoveries made in the area in 1997, where more than 40 sets of tracks were found during limestone quarrying, some of which were 180 meters long.
Experts say the new discoveries will provide valuable information about how the dinosaurs walked, how fast they reached, how big they were, and whether and how they interacted with each other.
“The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the soil deformed as the dinosaur’s feet squelched in and out. Along with other fossils such as burrows, shells, and plants, we can bring to life the muddy lagoon that the dinosaurs walked on,” commented Dr. Duncan Murdoch, an Earth scientist at the University of Oxford’s Natural History Museum.
The excavation will be broadcast on BBC Two’s Digging for Britain program, hosted by Professor Alice Roberts, on January 8, and will also be featured in a new public exhibition, Breaking Ground, at OUMNH.
