Explore Great Britain’s “Dinosaur Highway!”
A Megalosaurus track. (source: Oxford University)
Post Author - Ellis Nolan
No, this isn’t a story about dinosaurs getting speeding tickets. A recent discovery in rural Great Britain has helped scientists shed light on the behaviors of certain dinosaurs.
In June 2024, scientists began excavating a large area in a quarry called Dewars Farm in Oxfordshire, England. A worker named Gary Johnson noticed odd formations in the quarry and contacted the University of Birmingham to investigate further. The scientists would come to find he had stumbled on a collection of more than 200 dinosaur footprints from the Jurassic Period, over 160 million years ago.
The tracks in this “Dinosaur Highway” seem to be organized in five distinct paths created by two different species of dinosaurs. Scientists believe four of the paths were created by Cetiosaurus, a herbivorous sauropod that grew to over 60 feet long and weighed over 2 tons. The fifth, by Megalosaurus, a notable dinosaur not only due to its distinctive tri-clawed feet but also because it is the first dinosaur to be scientifically named. Archaeologists have been studying this prehistoric creature since 1824.
Megalosaurus paleoart by Mariana Ruiz
While images of massive teeth and claws often capture the public imagination, it is often the fossils such as those found at Dewars Farm that are of equal and complementary value to researchers. The bones extinct creatures leave behind give hints of their physiology, while their footprints reveal much about their behavior. In the case of the Dewars Farm fossils, scientists use dinosaur pathways to determine which species travel in groups or herds, such as Cetiosaurus. The distance between footprints can also help determine how fast the creatures moved, as well as the pace they were traveling at in a particular area.
The recent discovery is not the first time prehistoric tracks were found in Oxfordshire. In fact, dinosaur footprints have been found in the area since 1997. For this “dinosaur highway,” there’s much more than meets the eye.
Read more about dinosaur tracks here!
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