Researchers have discovered hundreds of dinosaur tracks dating back to the mid-Jurassic Era in a quarry in Oxfordshire, southern England, showing that reptiles like Megalosaurus moved along huge tracks in the region.
Excavation at Dewars Farm Quarry found five extensive tracks, one of which measured more than 150 meters in length, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham said on Thursday (2).
I’m thrilled to have played a small role in the excavation of the UK’s biggest ever dinosaur trackway site at Dewars Farm Quarry, Oxfordshire, in June 2024!
The excavation uncovered over 200 footprints, including those of 𝘔𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘴 and 𝘊𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘴 🦕
— Dr Emily Swaby (@EmilyJSwaby)
Four of the trails were made by gigantic, long-necked herbivores called sauropods, probably Cetiosaurus, an up to 60-foot-long cousin of the well-known Diplodocus, they said. The fifth track was made by the carnivorous theropod dinosaur Megalosaurus, a nine-meter predator that had three-toed feet with claws.
The footprints of carnivores and herbivores, which are about 166 million years old, intersect at one point, raising questions about whether and how the two types of dinosaurs were interacting, researchers said.
Megalosaurus was scientifically described in 1824, beginning the last 200 years of science and public interest in dinosaurs.
“Scientists have known about and studied Megalosaurus longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove that there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found,” said Emma Nicholls, vertebrate paleontologist. from the Natural History Museum at the University of Oxford.
The buried footprints came to light when quarry worker Gary Johnson felt “unusual jolts” when he was removing clay in his vehicle to expose the quarry floor.
