HomeScienceUK’s biggest ever dinosaur footprint trackways unearthed

UK’s biggest ever dinosaur footprint trackways unearthed


Kevin Church/BBC A single track of large dinosaur footprints - like big craters in the ground trail off into the distance in a quarry of whitish-grey sandy rock, clearly showing that a large dinosaur has walked that way. In the distance stand three black and one yellow bucket, suggesting people have been working on the side. A raised bluff of dark green vegetation borders the quarry on one side off in the distance to the right.Kevin Church/BBC

These footprints were made 166 million years ago as a dinosaur walked across a lagoon

The UK’s biggest ever dinosaur trackway site has been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire.

About 200 huge footprints, which were made 166 million years ago, criss-cross the limestone floor.

They reveal the comings and goings of two different types of dinosaurs that are thought to be a long-necked sauropod called Cetiosaurus and the smaller meat-eating Megalosaurus.

The longest trackways are 150m in length, but they could extend much further as only part of the quarry has been excavated.

“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 micropalaeontologist from the University of Birmingham.

“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.”