166-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered in a UK quarry
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Dinosaurs went extinct around 66 million years ago but their legacy remains on Earth. Now, researchers have discovered the most extensive dinosaur trackways ever to be found in Europe in an Oxfordshire quarry, which reveal how dinosaurs moved through the landscape (Picture: Emma Nicholls)
The 220-metre trail was left by enormous auropod dinosaurs, which were herbivorous four-legged animals with long necks and tails. The tracks were discovered at Dewars Farm Quarry, near Bicester, during work to remove limestone. Specifically, the tracks were thought to be made by a species of auropod known as Cetiosaurus. These animals grew up to around 16 metres in length and lived around 171 to 165 million years ago in what is now Britain and France (Picture: University of Birmingham)
The team of researchers, which were co-led by Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the University of Birmingham, found hundreds of individual footprints on the site, with sauropod footprints as well as a few rarer three-toed prints believed to have been made by meat-eating megalosaurs. The researchers learnt that the prints the animals left behind gave clues about how it moved and how quickly they were walking (Picture: Emma Nicholls)
Dr Richard Butler, professor of palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham and one of the excavation leads, said: ‘Most of what we know about dinosaurs comes from their skeletons, but footprints and the sediments that they are in can provide valuable additional information about how these organisms lived and what their environment looked like over 166 million years ago’ (Picture: Richard Butler)
The discovery comes after a successful excavation in summer 2024 at Dewars Farm quarry which revealed hundreds of dinosaur footprints dating back to the Middle Jurassic Period (around 166 million years ago). Dr Duncan Murdock, earth scientist at OUMNH, said: ‘What is most exciting about this site is the sheer size and number of footprints. We now have evidence of tens of individuals moving through this area at around the same time, perhaps as a herd’ (Picture: Ryan Storey/University of Birmingham)
More than 100 people worked at the site, including collaborators from Liverpool John Moores University and volunteer staff and students from all three universities. As the sun baked the earth, the group battled against a much drier, harder surface than the previous year focusing on a set of around 80 very large (up to 1m long) sauropod prints, that ran approximately north-south across the entire site (Picture: Ryan Storey/University of Birmingham)
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Now the team hopes to keep on working to find an even longer trackway. There were also a number of smaller finds, which included marine invertebrates, plant material and a crocodile jaw. The team hopes that more of the footprint surface is likely to be exposed over the coming years, and a full description of the significance, new scientific discoveries and potential for future preservation of the site is expected soon (Picture: University of Birmingham)
