World’s Longest Dinosaur Trackways Found in Oxfordshire
The footprints were made 166 million years ago as a dinosaur walked across a lagoon. Photo: Oxford University Museum of Natural History
A dinosaur trackway consisting of 200 footprints, made 166 million years ago, is among the longest of its kind discovered in the world, according to researchers.
The tracks were first spotted by a worker at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire four years ago, prompting paleontologists to begin excavations at the site.
Since then, scientists have uncovered hundreds of footprints, which they believe record the movements of Cetiosaurus, a large sauropod.
Dr. Emma Nichols from the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History co-led the excavation and shared details of the findings in an interview with BBC Radio Oxford.
She said there were four separate sauropod trackways, all of different sizes. “What that tells us is a possibility of a bunch of different things, it could be that they were all Cetiosaurus and they were moving as a family herd, or as a herd of different aged individuals, not necessarily related. Or it could be that we have more than one type of sauropod,” she said.
Cetiosaurus were four-legged, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs that could reach about 18 metres (59 feet) in length.
However, they were not the only dinosaurs that lived in what is now Oxfordshire.
Nichols noted that a 1997 excavation at a related site uncovered a Megalosaurus trackway. “The land in Oxfordshire would have been ruled by Megalosaurus, they were nine metres long and were Britain’s answer to T. rex,” she said.
Reconstructing the ancient environment, Nichols said the area 166 million years ago was a “really lovely tropical, kind of lush environment.”
“Britain was actually underwater, and there was a shallow inland sea covering Oxfordshire, but there was a series of islands, like the Bahamas or Florida Keys, and that’s where the dinosaurs would have been living,” she said. “So Megalosaurus, Cetiosaurus and other dinosaurs would have been living on these little islands.”
In one part of the site, researchers found evidence where the paths of a sauropod and a Megalosaurus may have crossed, with Nichols saying the footprints lie on the “same bedding plane.”
Most of the footprints are evenly spaced, except for one print that is out of line. Nichols suggested the sauropod may have paused and shifted its weight briefly, “as if it’s looking back over its left shoulder.”
“There might be lots of reasons why the animal would do that, and of course we weren’t there 166 million years ago,” she said. “But depending on where in time the Megalosaurus is on that trackway at the point where the sauropod put its foot down, it could very easily be explained by Megalosaurus coming up behind it.”
She added that while the sauropod would have been too large for a Megalosaurus to hunt, smaller animals in the group could have made it a target for tracking.
The future of the trackway has yet to be decided. Scientists are working with quarry operator Smiths Bletchington and Natural England to explore options for preserving the site.
Researchers believe more footprints may still be buried at the site, suggesting further discoveries could reveal more about the prehistoric landscape.
A previous version of the story stated the trackway was the longest of its kind in the world. This was later updated after Dr. Emma Nichols clarified her earlier comments.
Source: BBC (adaptive)
