six months ago A team of paleontologists examined a quarry in Oxfordshire, England, where unusual bumps appeared on the ground. It turns out that these bulges contain approximately 200 dinosaur footprints from the Jurassic period. Together they make up the largest dinosaur trail in the UK.
The path was created by a horde of ferocious beasts. This includes large herbivorous sauropods and carnivorous theropods. especially Researchers believe they were left 60 feet (18 meters) long. Cetiosaurus and 29.5 feet (9 meters) long Megalosaurusrespectively Megalosaurus Become the first dinosaur It has a scientific name: It dates back to 1824 (yes, modern dinosaur research just celebrated its 200th anniversary).
“Scientists have known and studied megalosaurus longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, but recent discoveries This proves that there is still new evidence about these animals waiting to be discovered,” said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at Oxford University Museum of Natural History in the University of Birmingham release–
Dinosaur trails are very useful to paleontologists. Even if the fossil does not involve bones, The footprints are the fossilized remains of Ancient life as it happened—Can express the number of living things and people. who are in the area during the specified time the environment through which they travel and various sizes and ages of living things in the area
Scientific discoveries—which involve the study of footprints, not fish (ithiology)—are a huge window into the ancient world. And when paired with evidence gathered from fossil bones It can help you tell that. A more holistic story About the life in front of us
According to Birmingham, the “highway” footprints are not the first to be discovered in Oxfordshire. More than 40 sets of fossilized footprints were found in a local limestone quarry in 1997, revealing various aspects of the site. of the dinosaurs that lived in what is now England during the Jurassic period.
However, much has changed in technology in nearly 30 years, and paleontologists are now able to catalog more information about trails than ever before. The team took more than 20,000 photographic prints during the latest excavation. This can provide information about the animals that caused the tracks and possible interactions between them.
“The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud deformed as the dinosaur's foot was squeezed in and out,” said Duncan Murdoch, a geoscientist at Oxford University Museums. d Said in the same report “By combining it with other fossils such as burrows, shells and plants, we were able to bring to life the muddy lake environment the dinosaurs walked through.”
Further investigation is likely to provide details of the Jurassic life that interspersed the site. But for now, the impressive size of the trails and the beasts that cause them will have to do.