A worker digging clay in a limestone quarry in southern England noticed unusual outcrops that led to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and nearly 200 tracks dating back 166 million years, researchers said Thursday.
Researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham said the extraordinary discovery, made after a team of more than 100 people excavated the Dewars Farm quarry, in Oxfordshire, last June, expands on previous paleontological work in the area and provides greater insights into the era. Middle Jurassic. .
Kirsty Edgar, professor of micropaleontology at the University of Birmingham, said: “These footprints provide an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions and the tropical environment they inhabited.”
Four sets of tracks that make up the so-called highway show paths taken by giant, long-necked herbivores called sauropods, believed to be the Citiosaurus dinosaur that grew to nearly 60 feet long. The fifth group belongs to the megalosaurus, a ferocious 30-foot-long predator that left a distinctive three-clawed imprint and was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named in two centuries.
The area where the paths intersect raises questions about possible interactions between carnivores and herbivores.
Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of California, said: “Scientists have known about and studied megalosaurs for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, yet these latest discoveries prove that there is still new evidence of these animals out there, just waiting.” “Find it.” Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Nearly 30 years ago, 40 sets of footprints were discovered in a limestone quarry in the area, and it was considered one of the most important dinosaur footprint sites in the world. But this area is mostly inaccessible now and there is limited photographic evidence because it predates the use of digital cameras and drones to record the findings.
The group working on the site this summer took more than 20,000 digital images and used drones to create 3D models of the prints. This collection of documents will aid future studies and could shed light on the size of dinosaurs, how they walked, and the speed at which they moved.
Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at the Oxford Museum, said: “The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the clay deformed as the dinosaurs’ feet squeezed in and out.” “Along with other fossils such as burrows, shells and plants, we can bring back to life the muddy lake environment that dinosaurs experienced.”
The findings will be displayed in a new exhibition at the museum, and will also be broadcast on the BBC’s Digging for Britain program next week.