Workers in a limestone quarry in southern England have uncovered almost 200 dinosaur footprints dating to roughly 166 million years ago, researchers revealed yesterday. The tracks are in the vicinity of a similar, previously discovered—but now inaccessible—site found in 1997, leading paleontologists to describe the area as a "Dinosaur Highway."
The recent find includes imprints from at least five different animals, believed to be four large sauropods and one Megalosaurus. The latter, a nearly 30-foot-long carnivore, was the first dinosaur fossil ever to be formally described in 1824. The new discovery sheds light on the behavior of dinosaurs in the region dating to the Middle Jurassic period—at a time when what is now England had a tropical climate and was covered in warm, shallow seas in many areas.
Unlike the previous 1997 discovery, researchers were able to extensively image and create 3D reconstructions of the prints, potentially providing insight into how the animals walked and interacted. Learn about the three epochs of dinosaurs here.
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