A worker digging soil in a limestone mine in southern England spotted unusual bulges, leading to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and about 200 tracks dating back 166 million years, researchers said Thursday.
Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Birmingham said the extraordinary discovery, made after a team of more than 100 excavated at the Dewars Farm quarry in Oxfordshire in June, extends previous palaeontology work in the area and brings to light the Middle Jurassic period. Provides more insight into. ,
“These footprints provide an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions and the tropical environment they lived in,” said Kirsty Edgar, micropaleontology professor at the University of Birmingham.
The four sets of tracks that make up the so-called highway show paths taken by giant, long-necked, herbivorous creatures called sauropods, thought to be Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to about 18 meters in length. The fifth set belonged to Megalosaurus, a ferocious 9-meter predator that bore a distinctive triple-clawed imprint and was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named two centuries ago.
The area where the tracks cross raises questions about possible interactions between carnivores and herbivores.
“Scientists have known about and studied Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove that there is still new evidence to be found about these animals. Looking forward to,” said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist. Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
About 30 years ago, 40 sets of footprints discovered in a limestone quarry in the area were considered one of the most scientifically important dinosaur track sites in the world. But the area is now mostly inaccessible 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 3-D models of the prints. The wealth of documentation will aid future studies and can shed light on the size of dinosaurs, how they moved and at what speeds.
“The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the soil was deformed as the dinosaurs’ feet pressed in and out,” said Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at Oxford Museum. “With other fossils such as bills, shells and plants we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment that dinosaurs lived through.”
The findings will be shown in a new exhibition at the museum and will also be broadcast on the BBC digging for uk Next week’s programme.