Dinosaur footprints are first proof of combined species herding

For some dinosaurs, security was present in numbers.

Footprints uncovered within the Canadian province of Alberta may very well be proof that some dinosaurs moved in herds comprising a number of completely different species.

Many of the newly described footprints had been made by ceratopsians, the group of horned dinosaurs that features Triceratops. The 13 ceratopsian tracks are thought to belong to at the very least 5 people strolling collectively throughout the panorama throughout the Cretaceous Period 70 million of years in the past.

But one other set of footprints strolling among the many herd is assumed to belong to an ankylosaurid. These are a unique group of dinosaurs which incorporates the tank-like armoured animal Ankylosaurus.

Additionally, two giant Tyrannosaurus rex trackways had been additionally found strolling side-by-side and perpendicular to the herd, which has additionally raised questions on whether or not these enormous predators had been stalking the group.

The discovery was made in July 2024 on the world-famous fossil web site Dinosaur Provincial Park. An worldwide staff, together with scientists from the University of Reading and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada, was concerned within the research, which has now been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Dr Brian Pickles, a researcher on the University of Reading and an creator of the research, says, “It was incredibly exciting to be walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs 76 million years after they laid them down.”

“Using the new search images for these footprints, we have been able to discover several more tracksites within the varied terrain of the Park, which I am sure will tell us even more about how these fascinating creatures interacted with each other and behaved in their natural environment.”

What can we be taught from these footprints?

Preserved footprints can present a uncommon perception into the lives of dinosaurs that we will’t at all times discern simply by analyzing their bones.

Jack Lovegrove, a palaeontologist on the Natural History Museum, says, “Dinosaur trackways are important as they give us a direct window into dinosaur behaviour. This can help confirm that they displayed behaviour scientists have previously inferred from their bones.”

“Ceratopsians have long been suspected to have lived in herds due to the existence of bone beds which preserve multiple individuals of the same species together. However, these bone beds only tell us for certain that these animals died together or the bodies accumulated after death.”

“The preserved trackways of several ceratopsians walking together in a group is rare evidence for these animals living together.”

The presence of different dinosaur footprints among the many ceratopsians has led researchers to imagine that these trackways may present the primary proof of mixed-species herding behaviour in dinosaurs. This would have been just like how fashionable wildebeest and zebras journey collectively throughout the African plains.

The presence of two T. rex footprints additionally raises the prospect that multispecies herding could have been a defence technique towards widespread apex predators. Although the analysis staff admits that extra proof is required to substantiate this.

“While it’s tempting to imagine these tracks as representing a single event where two tyrannosaurs are stalking the mixed herd of herbivores, this may not be entirely accurate,” says Jack.

“We don’t know how long the mud flat that preserved these trackways was exposed, so they could have been made days or even weeks apart. We may be seeing a montage of cretaceous life rather than a single scene.”

A treasure trove of dinosaur discoveries

While dinosaur tracksites have been present in a number of locations internationally, this new one is the primary of its type to be found in Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage web site and is house to a number of the world’s most vital dinosaur discoveries. So far, the stays of at the very least 44 species throughout 10 dinosaur households have been recognized from the location.

The space is situated within the coronary heart of Alberta’s Badlands, however throughout the Cretaceous Period this space was a coastal plain crisscrossed by rivers and lined in a lush forest.

The web site has offered palaeontologists with numerous high-quality specimens, which have helped us acquire a deeper understanding of dinosaurs throughout this time period. More than 150 practically full skeletons have been made up of fabric from this web site and are actually housed in 30 main museums.

Several specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park are at the moment housed within the Natural History Museum in London. In 2011, scientists described a brand new species of medium-sized ceratopsian dinosaur based mostly on materials recovered from the location in Canada in 1916. The stays of the species, referred to as Spinops sternbergorum, had been within the collections for nearly 100 years earlier than scientists realised its significance.

Today, work to unearth extra dinosaur discoveries continues on the web site.

“What’s exciting about these trackways in particular is they have been found in the dinosaur park formation, which has one of the best-known dinosaur faunas in the world,” says Jack.

“Palaeontologists have a good understanding of which dinosaurs lived at different levels within this formation and therefore which dinosaurs were the trackmakers at this site.”