Unearthed Marvel: 166 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Highway Revealed in England!

OXFORDSHIRE, England – Numerous distinct dinosaur footprints from the middle-Jurassic period, roughly 166 million years ago, have been revealed in a quarry in England, described by scientists as a “dinosaur highway.”

These tracks were uncovered when a quarry employee in Oxfordshire was removing clay from the floor and noticed “unusual bumps,” as reported by the University of Oxford in a news release.

Subsequently, a team of 100 researchers from the universities of Oxford and Birmingham identified five distinct trackways containing 200 dinosaur prints in June 2024, according to the university. 

One trackway belonged to a Megalosaurus, a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur, as noted by the university. This species had large, clawed feet with three toes on each foot. Evidence of Megalosaurus has only been located in England, according to the Natural History Museum in London.

The other four trackways were created by sauropods, a type of large, long-necked herbivorous dinosaur. The university indicated that these tracks were most likely made by a Cetiosaurus. 

In one section of the quarry, the tracks of both carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs intersected, leading researchers to ponder how, and if, these two dinosaur types may have interacted. 

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“These footprints provide an incredible glimpse into the existence of dinosaurs, revealing aspects of their movements, interactions, and the lush environment they lived in,” stated Kirsty Edgar, a professor of micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham. 

Researchers mentioned that this newly discovered array of trackways suggests that dinosaurs once traversed through a muddy lagoon, which is presently the quarry. 

“The preservation is exceptionally detailed; we can observe how the mud was distorted as the dinosaur’s feet pressed in and pulled out,” remarked Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. “Together with other fossils such as burrows, shells, and plants, we can visualize the muddy lagoon environment that the dinosaurs navigated.”

The week-long excavation of the footprints led researchers to find that the new tracks were connected to nearly 40 sets of footprints discovered during earlier limestone quarrying efforts in 1997, as reported by the University of Oxford. 

The university stated that more than 20,000 images of the newly found footprints have been captured and will support further research into how these dinosaurs moved, their size, and how, if at all, they may have interacted.