In a remarkable discovery, researchers have uncovered a vast network of dinosaur footprints dating back 166 million years in a limestone quarry in southeast England.
The ancient tracks, which form what's being called a "dinosaur highway," consist of over 200 footprints spanning a vast area of quarry floor in Oxfordshire. Dating back to the Middle Jurassic Period, the prints belong to more than five distinct species.
The tracks include those of sauropods and the Megalosaurus, offering fresh evidence of these ancient creatures.
"This is one of the most impressive track sites I've ever seen, in terms of scale, in terms of the size of the tracks," said Prof. Kirsty Edgar, a micropaleontologist from the University of Birmingham, told BBC News. "You can step back in time and get an idea of what it would have been like, these massive creatures just roaming around, going about their own business."
The prints were found by a worker at the Dewars Farm Quarry, which researchers say was once a lagoon traversed by the massive beasts. The footprints were buried under mud but came to light when quarry worker Gary Johnson felt "unusual bumps" as he was stripping the clay back with his vehicle, in order to expose the quarry floor. That's when the experts were called in.
The Universities of Oxford and Birmingham co-led a team of more than 100 people on a week-long excavation in June 2024. The dig uncovered five extensive trackways with evidence of more in the surrounding area. The longest continuous trackway measured more than 150 meters, nearly 500 feet, in length.
Researchers say four of the trackways were made by gigantic, long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs called sauropods, most likely to be Cetiosaurus, an up to 59-foot-long cousin of the well-known Diplodocus.
The fifth trackway was made by the Megalosaurus, a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that had distinctive, large, three-toed feet with claws. Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur worldwide to be scientifically named and described in 1824, and kick-started the last 200 years of dinosaur science.
"Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found," Dr Emma Nicholls, Vertebrate Paleontologist at OUMNH, said in a statement.
The discovery sheds light on the Middle Jurassic period and provides insights into the behaviors and movement patterns of dinosaurs in the region millions of years ago. One area of the site shows the carnivore and herbivore tracks crossing over, raising questions about whether and how the two were interacting.
The new trackways connect to discoveries made in the area in 1997, where previous limestone quarrying revealed more than 40 sets of footprints, with some trackways reaching up to 180 meters, 590 feet, in length. At the time, the site provided major new information on the types of dinosaurs present in the UK during the Middle Jurassic Period, and it was recognized as one of the most scientifically important dinosaur track sites in the world.
The original site is largely no longer accessible and, since the findings predated the use of digital cameras and drones, there is limited photographic evidence. Now, 30 years later, modern techniques and technology mean the new trackways can be recorded like never before. The team was able to build detailed 3D models of the site using drone photography – documenting the footprints in unprecedented detail for future research.
"The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur's feet squelched in and out. Along with other fossils like burrows, shells and plants we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through," Dr. Duncan Murdock, Earth Scientist at OUMNH, said in a statement.
The detailed preservation of the footprints will be featured in an exhibit at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and on the BBC's "Digging for Britain" program.