UK’s biggest ever dinosaur footprint site unearthed 10 hours ago Rebecca Morelle Science Editor Alison Francis Senior Science Journalist The UK’s biggest ever dinosaur trackway site has been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire.
The longest trackways are 150m in length, but they could extend much further as only part of the quarry has been excavated.
Another trackway site had been found nearby in the 1990s, so he realised the regular bumps and dips could be dinosaur footprints.
“It’s almost like a caricature of a dinosaur footprint”, explained Dr Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate palaeontologist from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
“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,” Prof Butler explained.
Find the largest dinosaur footprint site ever discovered in the UK.
ten hours previously.
Rebecca Morelle. .
Science Editor.
Francis, Alison.
seasoned journalist for science.
In a quarry in Oxfordshire, the largest dinosaur trackway site ever found in the United Kingdom was found.
Scattered across the limestone floor are about 200 enormous footprints that were created 166 million years ago.
They show the arrivals and departures of two distinct dinosaur species, believed to be the smaller meat-eating Megalosaurus and the long-necked sauropod Cetiosaurus.
Since only a portion of the quarry has been dug up, the longest trackways, which are 150 meters long, could stretch much farther.
“In terms of scale and the size of the tracks, this is one of the most impressive track sites I’ve ever seen,” University of Birmingham micropalaeontologist Prof. Kirsty Edgar said.
“You can travel back in time to get a sense of what it would have been like to see these enormous animals simply wandering around and conducting their daily activities. “..”.
Gary Johnson, a Dewars Farm Quarry employee, initially noticed the tracks while operating a digger.
He pointed to a ridge where some mud had been lifted as a dinosaur’s foot pressed into the ground. “I was basically clearing the clay, and I hit a hump, and I thought it’s just an abnormality in the ground,” he said.
But after three meters, it reached another hump and was once more there. After that, it went through another 3m hump. “..”.
The frequent dips and bumps could be dinosaur footprints, he realized after discovering another trackway site nearby in the 1990s.
“I believed that I was the first to notice them. “And it was really a bit of a tingling moment—it was so surreal,” he told BBC News.
More than 100 volunteers, students, and scientists participated in an excavation at the quarry this summer that was featured on the new Digging for Britain series.
Five distinct trackways were discovered by the team.
Sauropods, four-legged dinosaurs that ate plants, created four of them. These animals could grow up to 18 meters long, and their footprints resemble those of an elephant, but they are much larger.
It is believed that a Megalosaurus produced another track.
According to Dr. Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, “it’s almost like a caricature of a dinosaur footprint.”.
It is referred to as a tridactyl print. It has three toes that are extremely visible in the print. “..”.
According to her, the two-legged carnivorous animals were nimble hunters.
“The entire animal would have measured 6 to 9 meters in length. In Britain during the Jurassic Period, they were the biggest predatory dinosaurs that we are aware of. “,”.
As the dinosaurs walked across the mud, they left their imprints on the warm, shallow lagoon that covered their habitat.
Professor Richard Butler, a palaeobiologist at the University of Birmingham, stated, “Something must have happened to preserve these in the fossil record.”.
Although we are unsure of the precise cause, it is possible that a storm event deposited a lot of sediments on top of the footprints, preserving them instead of simply washing them away. “..”.
Throughout the excavation, the team thoroughly examined the trackways. They created 3D models of the entire site and individual footprints by taking over 20,000 photos in addition to casting the tracks.
“The truly beautiful thing about a dinosaur footprint, especially if you have a trackway, is that it is a moment in the animal’s life,” Prof. Butler clarified.
“You can discover details about the animal’s movement. You can discover exactly what kind of environment it was residing in. As a result, tracks provide us with a completely different set of data than the bone fossil record. “,”.
In one section of the site, you can even see where a megalosaurus and a sauropod once crossed paths.
Because the front edge of the sauropod’s large, round footprint is slightly squashed by the three-toed megalosaurus walking on top of it, the team determined which animal passed through first thanks to the exquisitely preserved prints.
According to Dr. Duncan Murdock of Oxford University, “it is incredibly thrilling to know that a single dinosaur walked across this surface and left precisely that print.”.
“You can kind of picture it moving through, slowly removing its legs from the mud. “.
Scientists are working with Natural England and Smiths Bletchington, the quarry’s operator, to explore options for the trackways’ future preservation.
They think there might be more footprints—these remnants of our ancient past—out there, just waiting to be found.
On BBC Two’s Digging for Britain, the excavation is highlighted at 20:00 on Wednesday, January 8. On January 7, the entire series will be accessible via BBC iPlayer.
