- A 'dinosaur highway' containing around 200 footprints dating back 166 million years has been discovered in southern England.
- Some of the footprints mark the path taken by the Setiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to about 60 feet long. Another set belonged to Megalosaurus. Megalosaurus was a 30-foot-long predator that was the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name 200 years ago.
- The discovery will be displayed in a new exhibition at Oxford University's Natural History Museum and will be broadcast on the BBC's Digging for Britain next week.
Workers digging through clay at a limestone quarry in southern England noticed an unusual bump, leading to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and about 200 tracks dating back 166 million years, researchers said Thursday. Announced.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham said the surprising discovery, made after a team of more than 100 people excavated the Dewars Farm quarry in Oxfordshire in June, was the most recent palaeontological study in the area. and provide greater insight into the Middle Jurassic. .
First green dinosaur skeleton discovered in Utah may be a new species, National Geographic says
Kirsty Edgar, professor of micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham, said: “These footprints provide a special window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions and the tropical environments they lived in. It has been made clear.”
Workers gather around five vast tracks that form part of the “Dinosaur Highway” at Dewar's Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (University of Birmingham, via AP)
Four of the tracks that make up the so-called highway mark the path taken by giant, long-necked herbivores called sauropods, such as Setiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 60 feet in length. It is thought that. The fifth set belonged to Megalosaurus. Megalosaurus was a ferocious 30-foot-long predator with distinctive three-clawed markings and was the first dinosaur to be given a scientific name two centuries ago.
Areas where railroad tracks intersect raise questions about possible interactions between carnivores and herbivores.
Emma Nichols, a vertebrate paleontologist at the institute, said: “Scientists have known and studied Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, but this discovery is the first of its kind. “This proves that new evidence of animals still exists and is waiting to be discovered.” Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Nearly 30 years ago, 40 pairs of footprints discovered in a limestone quarry in the area were considered among the most scientifically important dinosaur footprints in the world. But the area is now largely inaccessible, and photographic evidence is limited because it predates digital cameras and drones to record finds.
Workers carefully study dinosaur footprints discovered at Dewar's Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (Emma Nichols/OUMNH, via AP)
The group on site this summer took more than 20,000 digital images and used a drone to create 3D models of the prints. The large amount of documentation could aid future research and reveal things like how big the dinosaurs were, how they walked, and how fast they moved.
Click here to sign up for our lifestyle newsletter
“The preservation is so detailed that you can see how the mud deformed as the dinosaur's feet moved in and out,” said Oxford Museum geoscientist Duncan Murdoch. “Together with other fossils such as burrows, shells and plants, we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment that dinosaurs walked through.”
The finds will be displayed in a new exhibit at the museum and will be broadcast on the BBC's Digging for Britain next week.
