Dinosaur footprints from 166 million years ago discovered in UK quarry
The most extensive dinosaur tracks ever discovered in Europe have been unearthed in a quarry in Oxfordshire. Paleontologists have gained new insights into how dinosaurs moved across the landscape.
An astounding 220-metre footprint left by giant sauropod dinosaurs (four-legged herbivorous animals with long necks and tails) was discovered during limestone quarrying at Dewars Farm, near Bicester.
The tracks are believed to have been made by a species of sauropod. CetiosaurusA species that reached about 16 meters in length and lived in what is now England and France about 171 to 165 million years ago.
The team, jointly led by the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History and the University of Birmingham, uncovered hundreds of individual footprints passing through the area, including sauropod footprints, as well as rarer three-toed prints believed to have been made by meat-eating megalosaurs.
Dr. from Oxford University Museum of Natural History. “We have been working in this area since 2022 and are slowly revealing more of this surface,” said Duncan Murdock. Independent.
“This summer we dug four paths with about 100 individual footprints, the longest of which is 220 meters and each of which is almost a meter long, which is absolutely huge.
“With this, we can calculate how big this animal was. Roughly speaking, the height of the hip is about four times the length of the scar, so about four meters to the hip, which translates to a length of about 15 or 16 meters from head to tail, and [weighing] “Up to 10 tons.”
The tracks left behind by the animal provide new clues about how it moved, especially how fast these creatures walked.
Dr Murdock said speed calculations were “based on stride length as well as trail measurements”.
“Based on what we know about how four-legged animals like modern-day elephants move, we can use these stride length and hip height estimates to calculate speed. If you’re running, your steps move farther apart than if you were walking, we predict.” [the dinosaur’s speed to be] about 4 or 5 miles per hour; “It’s close to most people’s average walking speed,” he said.
What we now call Oxfordshire was a very different place 166 million years ago. At that time, Britain was much further south than it is today (about the same latitude as North Africa) and the sea level was much higher, creating large inland seas dotted with islands. Moreover, the giant dinosaurs walked on mud flats as they advanced through watery terrain.
“Think of things like the Florida Keys or the Banks of the Bahamas. Occasionally there would be mud flats that were exposed to the weather, and it was one of these mud flats along the chain of islands that the dinosaurs walked with. They took advantage of that to move between islands,” Dr Murdock said.
Although there are many sites around the world and in the UK where dinosaur tracks can be found (mostly along the coast where sea erosion has exposed rocks), the site in Oxfordshire is unusual due to its scale.
University of Birmingham palaeontologist Kirsty Edgar said: Independent: “It’s very rare to see anything like this in the UK, as most of our dinosaur track sites are small coastal areas. As the quarry continues to expand, so do the dinosaur tracks, providing an increasingly rich snapshot into the life and times of these magnificent animals.”
“It is so exciting to be able to stand where some of the largest animals that ever lived walked and imagine what their lives and worlds were like.”
Professor Edgar added: “Dinosaur tracks offer us the opportunity to see how dinosaurs lived and what they were doing at the time, something we can’t get from the body fossil record alone.”
For now, dinosaur footprints are carefully recorded before being reburied to preserve them. Officials say there are no immediate plans to reopen the site or make the trails accessible to the public.
But discussions are ongoing with Natural England, quarry operators Smiths Bletchington and the local authority about the possibility of future excavations. Until then, the quarry will remain in active use and extraction will continue for the foreseeable future.
